Detectability of simulated pulmonary nodules on chest radiographs: Comparison between irradiation side sampling indirect flat-panel detector and computed radiography

• Published in: European journal of radiology 2013-11, Vol.82 (11), p.2050-2054
• Main Authors: Yano, Yuki, Yabuuchi, Hidetake, Tanaka, Nobukazu, Morishita, Junji, Akasaka, Tsutomu, Matsuo, Yoshio, Sunami, Shunya, Kamitani, Takeshi, Jinnouchi, Mikako, Yamasaki, Yuzo, Nagao, Michinobu, Sasaki, Masayuki
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Diagnostic performance; Equipment Design; Equipment Failure Analysis; Humans; Image Enhancement - instrumentation; Imaging; Observer Variation; Phantoms; Phantoms, Imaging; Radiation Dosage; Radiographic image enhancement; Radiography, Thoracic - instrumentation; Radiology; Reproducibility of Results; ROC curve; Sample Size; Sensitivity and Specificity; Solitary pulmonary nodule; Solitary Pulmonary Nodule - diagnostic imaging; Tomography, X-Ray Computed - instrumentation; X-Ray Intensifying Screens
• ISSN: 0720-048X; 1872-7727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ejrad.2013.05.036

Abstract Objective To compare the detectability of simulated pulmonary nodules on chest radiographs between an irradiation side sampling indirect flat-panel detector (ISS-FPD) and computed radiography (CR). Materials and methods This study was an observer performance study. Simulated pulmonary nodules of 8 mm in diameter were superimposed on an anthropomorphic chest phantom. Chest radiographs were acquired under 2 exposure levels (4 and 3.2 mAs) with the ISS-FPD and the CR. Six thoracic radiologists evaluated all 40 images (10 patterns × 2 different exposure doses × 2 different systems) for the presence or absence of a lesion over each of 12 defined areas on a 3-megapixel monochrome liquid-crystal display. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were obtained for observation in predefined 480 areas. A jackknife method was used for statistical analysis. Differences with a P value of