INTERPRETATION OF SUBTLE INTERSTITIAL LUNG ABNORMALITIES - CONVENTIONAL VERSUS FILM-DIGITIZED RADIOGRAPHY

PURPOSE: To evaluate the reliability of film-digitized radiography in detection of subtle interstitial lung abnormalities. MATERIALS AND MET HODS: The differences in interpretation of conventional screen-film (S F) and film-digitized (FD) radiographs obtained in 80 patients were st udied. Forty patients with subtle interstitial lung abnormalities and 40 patients with no lung abnormalities were selected. SF radiographs o f all patients were digitized (spatial resolution, 0.175 mm; 2,000 x 2 ,000 pixels; 10 bits). Five chest radiologists and five residents eval uated the images with a five-level scale of confidence. Results were e valuated with receiver operating characteristic techniques. RESULTS: F or the entire group, no statistically significant differences in perfo rmance were found between SF and FD radiographs. Chest radiologists pe rformed better on SF radiographs (P = .003). For residents, no statist ically significant differences were observed between the modalities. C ONCLUSION: FD radiographs may be inadequate compared with SF radiograp hs in the diagnosis of subtle interstitial lung abnormalities.