INFLUENCE OF AMBIENT LIGHTING CONDITIONS ON DIAGNOSTIC PERFORMANCE USING DIGITAL REPORTING WORKSTATIONS

The aim of our study was to determine the influence of ambient lightin g conditions on the diagnostic performance when using digital reportin g workstations. We acquired 15 normal and 30 fractured porcine femura using a storage phosphor system. All images were demonstrated on a hig h-quality image display under optimised (128 lx) and non-optimised (45 0 lx) ambient lighting conditions and on a conventional viewingbox und er non-optimised conditions (450 lx). Results were analysed using ROC- statistics. The area under the ROC-curve was 0.895 for optimised condi tions and 0.684 for non-optimised conditions using digital displays an d 0.849 for the conventional viewbox. The difference in diagnostic per formance between optimised and non-optimised conditions using a digita l display was highly significant (p < 0,001). Our results emphasise th e importance of adequate surrounding lighting conditions for radiologi c diagnostic performance, particularly for the use of digital reportin g consoles.