CHEST IMAGING WITH A SELENIUM DETECTOR VERSUS CONVENTIONAL FILM RADIOGRAPHY - A CT-CONTROLLED STUDY

PURPOSE: To compare radiologist detection performance under clinical c onditions for assessment of conventional radiographs and digital chest images obtained with a selenium detector. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred four patients were examined with the digital and conventional systems under near identical technical conditions. The digital images were acquired without an antiscatter grid. Two hundred eight images we re analyzed by three radiologists for detection of pulmonary, mediasti nal, and pleural abnormalities; computed tomography was used as the re ference standard. The diagnostic value of both techniques for the dete ction of these chest abnormalities was analyzed with receiver operatin g characteristic (ROC) methods. RESULTS: For detection of the various abnormalities by all radiologists, the areas under the ROC curves with conventional imaging versus digital imaging, respectively, were as fo llows: pulmonary opacities, 0.81 versus 0.79; interstitial disease, 0. 69 versus 0.73; mediastinal disease, 0.79 versus 0.74; and pleural abn ormalities, 0.73 versus 0.68. CONCLUSION: There was no statistically s ignificant difference between the radiologists' performance in detecti ng pulmonary, mediastinal, and pleural abnormalities with conventional radiography versus that with digital selenium chest radiography.