Intertrochanteric fracture visualization and analysis using a map projection technique

Understanding intertrochanteric fracture distribution is an important topic in orthopedics due to its high morbidity and mortality. The intertrochanteric fracture can contain high-dimensional information including complicated 3D fracture lines, which often make it difficult to visualize or to obtain valuable statistics for clinical diagnosis and prognosis applications. This paper proposed a map projection technique to map the high-dimensional information into a 2D parametric space. This method can preserve the 3D proximal femur surface and structure while visualizing the entire fracture line with a single plot/view. Using this method and a standardization technique, a total of 100 patients with different ages and genders are studied based on the original radiographs acquired by CT scan. The comparison shows that the proposed map projection representation is more efficient and rich in information visualization than the conventional heat map technique. Using the proposed method, a fracture probability can be obtained at any location in the 2D parametric space, from which the most probable fracture region can be accurately identified. The study shows that age and gender have significant influences on intertrochanteric fracture frequency and fracture line distribution.