Selenium-based digital radiography versus conventional film-screen radiography of the hands and feet: A subjective comparison

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study was to subjectively compare the visibi lity of normal anatomy of the hands and feet using selenium-based digital r adiography versus conventional film-screen (100-speed) radiography. SUBJECTS AND METHODS. Digital and film-screen images of the hands and feet of 24 patients were obtained without an antiscatter grid using identical X- ray exposure. Each pair of images was evaluated independently by five exper ienced radiologists for visibility of normal anatomy using a six-point rati ng scale. Soft tissues, cortical bone, and trabeculae were evaluated. For e ach observer, "equivalence" was defined as a mean difference in image quali ty of less than 1 unit on the 0-5 scale used in the study. Paired t tests w ere also performed to determine whether the average visibility rating of on e technique was statistically superior to that of the other at a .05 level of significance for each observer and at each anatomic landmark. RESULTS. In all categories, selenium-based digital images were rated equiva lent to film-screen images by the five observers. Using the sum of the nine landmarks, four of the ve observers rated the quality of selenium-based di gital images superior to that of film-screen images. CONCLUSION. Subjective visibility of normal anatomy of the hands and feet u sing selenium-based digital radiography was similar to that achieved using conventional film-screen radiography.