Comparison of visual grading analysis and determination of detective quantum efficiency for evaluating system performance in digital chest radiography

A study was conducted to compare physical and clinical system performance in digital chest radiography. Four digital X-ray modalities, two storage-phosphor based systems and two generations of a CCD-based system, were evaluated in terms of both their imaging properties (determination of presampling...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European radiology 2004-01, Vol.14 (1), p.48-58
Main Authors: Sund, Patrik, Båth, Magnus, Kheddache, Susanne, Månsson, Lars Gunnar
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
computed radiography
criteria
Equipment Design
generations
Humans
image quality
lumbar spine radiographs
Models, Theoretical
modulation transfer-function
noise
Radiographic Image Enhancement
Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted
Radiography
Radiography, Thoracic - instrumentation
Radiography, Thoracic - methods
Radiologi och bildbehandling
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Medical Imaging
Sensitivity and Specificity
Studies
Systems Analysis
Technology, Radiologic
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Summary:A study was conducted to compare physical and clinical system performance in digital chest radiography. Four digital X-ray modalities, two storage-phosphor based systems and two generations of a CCD-based system, were evaluated in terms of both their imaging properties (determination of presampling MTF and DQE) and clinical image quality (grading of the reproduction of anatomical details of 23 healthy volunteers using both absolute and relative visual grading analysis). One of the two storage-phosphor systems performed best in both evaluations and the first generation of the CCD-based system was rated worst; however, the other two systems were ranked differently with the two methods. The newest CCD-based system yielded a higher clinical image quality than the second storage-phosphor system, although the latter presented a DQE substantially higher than the former. The results show that clinical performance cannot be predicted from determinations of DQE alone, and that a system with lower DQE, under the quantum-saturated conditions in chest radiography, can outperform a system with higher DQE if the image processing used on the former is more effective in presenting the information in the image to the radiologist.
ISSN:0938-7994
1432-1084
DOI:10.1007/s00330-003-1971-z