Comparison of Traditional, MRI, and 3D Scanning Anthropometric Measurements in Hand Prosthesis Design

In the process of designing custom prostheses, there are various traditional or digital techniques to measure the limbs of the patients. The most widely used method is traditional anthropometric measurements. On the other hand, the development of three-dimensional imaging methods in the digital environment such as computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and 3-dimensional (3D) scanning have made these applications more practical and precise. However, the deviations and measurement differences that will affect the measurement results among them have not been clearly revealed yet. Therefore, measurements have been collected with MRI, 3D scanning and traditional anthropometric measurement methods from a person that has an amputation on his hand and the results have been compared. The results were statistically analyzed with one-way ANOVA and Bland-Altman plots, and no significant difference was found between the measurement methods (p<0.98). Although the 3D scanning is close to the MRI results, the lowest deviation was obtained in the MRI method. As a result, 3D scanning is expected to be used more widely in the future in the custom design phase in terms of cost-effectiveness, time-saving, measurement reliability, and repeatability.