Comparison Between a Screen-Film System and a Selenium Radiography System

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
To evaluate the diagnostic image quality of the hard copies of a commercially available selenium detector-based computed radiography system compared to that of a conventional screen-film system. Ten radiographs of an anthropomorphic chest phantom with simulated nodular and linear-reticular lesions were produced using either system. Each radiograph was subdivided into 15 fields containing zero lesions, one nodular lesion, one linear-reticular lesion, or both lesions. The total of 150 fields for each modality was reviewed by six radiologists, and receiver operating analysis was performed. The conventional screen-film system performed significantly better for nodular lesions, whereas no statistically significant difference was found between the detection rates of both systems for linear-reticular lesions. The better detection of nodules with the dedicated selenium detector can be explained by the higher dynamic range of the system. Detection of linear-reticular lesions was slightly but not significantly better with the screen-film system, but the detection rate of the selenium detector might be further improved with a different image processing technique.