COMPARISON OF PERIAPICAL AND DETAILED NARROW-BEAM RADIOGRAPHY FOR DIAGNOSIS OF PERIAPICAL BONE-LESIONS

The diagnostic performance of the detailed narrow-beam (DNB) technique of the Scanora(R) multimodal radiography system was compared for peri apical radiography for the detection of periapical bone lesions at 262 dental sites in 144 patients. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC ) of both imaging modalities were analysed in relation to the ratings of five observers for the whole dentition, three dental regions, and t wo types of periapical lesions. ROC analysis demonstrated no overall o r regional significant differences in the diagnostic performance of th e two imaging modalities. The sensitivity for periapical radiography w as 72% and for DNB radiography 90%, and the specificities 89% and 88%, respectively. It is concluded that DNB radiography performs as well a s periapical radiography for detecting periapical bone lesions.