Gakenheimer David C
Northrop Grumman Information Technology, San Pedro, CA 90733-0471, USA.
J Am Dent Assoc. 2002 Jul;133(7):883-90. doi: 10.14219/jada.archive.2002.0303.
A unique software tool has been developed to assist dentists in the difficult task of diagnosing radiographs for proximal caries. The software, called Logicon Caries Detector (Northrop Grumman Information Technology, Herndon, Va.), extracts image features and correlates them with a database of known caries problems. The Logicon software was combined with the digital radiography system Trophy RadioVisioGraphy (Trophy Radiologie, Croissy-Beaubourg, France) and its effectiveness was measured in a clinical study, the results of which are reported here.
The manufacturer trained 18 dentists in private practices and one university clinic across the United States to use the Logicon Caries Detector software. The dentists diagnosed 175 surfaces with potential caries and adjacent teeth expected to be clean but included as control surfaces. The dentists first did a visual diagnosis only and then repeated the diagnosis using the software. If their final diagnosis called for it, a restoration was performed and the depth of caries was recorded.
Effectiveness was gauged by calculating three measures of performance-sensitivity, specificity and accuracy-for dentin caries diagnosis by each dentist both before and after using Logicon Caries Detector. Sensitivity among all dentists before using the Logicon software was 70.3 percent and afterward was 90.5 percent, an improvement of 20.2 percent. Dentists' specificity was 88.6 percent before using the software and 88.3 percent afterward, with a difference of-0.3 percent. Dentists' accuracy was 75.6 percent before using the software and 88.3 percent afterward, with an improvement of 12.7 percent.
Logicon Caries Detector enabled dentists to find 20 percent more cases of caries penetrating into dentin than they were able to find without it, while not causing them to mistreat any additional healthy teeth.
Digital radiography and smart software like Logicon Caries Detector will improve dentists' diagnostic abilities and lead to better patient care.
已开发出一种独特的软件工具，以协助牙医完成对根尖片进行邻面龋诊断这项艰巨任务。该软件名为Logicon龋病检测仪（诺斯罗普·格鲁曼信息技术公司，弗吉尼亚州赫恩登），可提取图像特征并将其与已知龋病问题的数据库进行关联。Logicon软件与数字化放射成像系统Trophy RadioVisioGraphy（法国克罗瓦西-博堡市Trophy Radiologie公司）相结合，并在一项临床研究中对其有效性进行了评估，此处报告该研究结果。
制造商在美国各地的18家私人诊所和1所大学诊所对牙医进行培训，使其使用Logicon龋病检测仪软件。这些牙医对175个有潜在龋病的牙面以及预期健康但作为对照牙面的相邻牙齿进行诊断。牙医首先仅进行视觉诊断，然后使用该软件重复诊断。如果最终诊断需要，进行修复并记录龋病深度。
通过计算每位牙医在使用Logicon龋病检测仪前后对牙本质龋诊断的三项性能指标——灵敏度、特异度和准确度，来评估其有效性。在使用Logicon软件之前，所有牙医的灵敏度为70.3%，之后为90.5%，提高了20.2%。牙医在使用软件前的特异度为88.6%，之后为88.3%，差值为-0.3%。牙医在使用软件前的准确度为75.6%，之后为88.3%，提高了12.7%。
Logicon龋病检测仪使牙医能够比不使用该软件时多发现20%的龋病已侵入牙本质的病例，同时不会导致他们误治任何额外的健康牙齿。
数字化放射成像以及像Logicon龋病检测仪这样的智能软件将提高牙医的诊断能力，并带来更好的患者护理。
