IMAGE QUALITY OF DIGITAL CHEST RADIOGRAPHY - EVALUATION OF SUBTLE INTERSTITIAL LUNG ABNORMALITIES - (PRELIMINARY-STUDY)

To evaluate the image quality of storage phosphor radiography (SR) for diagnosing subtle interstitial lung abnormalities, we studied the dif ferences between conventional screen-film radiography (FR) and SR in 3 8 patients. Nineteen patients had subtle interstitial lung abnormaliti es and the others had normal chests. Two formats of hard copies were u sed for SR; a full-size SR (14 x 14 inches, 0.2-mm pixel size) and a m inified SR (9 x 9 inches, 0.13-mm pixel size). Readings were carried o ut by 14 readers (7 chest radiologists and 7 residents). The area unde r the receiver operating characteristic curve was used to evaluate the results. For the 14 readers no significant differences in observer pe rformance were observed among the three image sets (FR, full-size SR, minified SR), while for the seven chest radiologists significant diffe rences were observed between FR and the two formats of SR. The best pe rceptual accuracy was obtained with FR as evaluated by the seven chest radiologists. In conclusion, while overall performance with digital a nd conventional radiographs was almost the same as far as diagnosing s ubtle interstitial lung abnormalities, significant differences between FR and SR were found by chest radiologists. Critically important info rmation may be lost in commercially available SR.