Radiation Protection Dosimetry Advance Access originally published online on February 3, 2006
Radiation Protection Dosimetry 2005 117(1-3):174-177; doi:10.1093/rpd/nci748
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Analysis of image quality in digital chest imaging
1 Department of Medical Physics and Radiation Protection, Ghent University, Proeftuinstraat 86, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
2 Department of Radiology, Ghent University Hospital, De Pintelaan 185, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
* Corresponding author: an.dehauwere{at}UGent.be
An evaluation of the image quality of an amorphous silicon flat-panel detector system and a computed radiology system compared with a screen-film system was performed by means of contrast-detail phantom images. Hard and soft copy images were evaluated. Although patient dose at clinical settings was strongly decreased with the amorphous silicon system, the low-contrast visibility with this system was still significantly better than with the screen-film system. For the computed radiology system, low-contrast visibility was comparable to the screen-film system. Best results were obtained by soft copy reading at full resolution with adaptation of contrast and brightness. Changing tube voltage (102133 kV), or additional filtration, did not significantly affect image quality. However, low-contrast visibility improved significantly with increasing exposure. It was clearly demonstrated that, in chest imaging, the amorphous silicon system has superior imaging characteristics compared to the screen-film and the computed radiology system.