Selenium-based digital radiography in the detection of bone lesions: Preliminary experience with experimentally created defects

PURPOSE: To compare the diagnostic performance of selenium-based digital ra diography with that of conventional screen-film radiography and storage pho sphor radiography for the detection of bone lesions simulating osteolyses. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Artificial osseous lesions 1.0-3.0 mm in diameter we re created in 80 of 160 predefined regions in 16 porcine femoral specimens. Specimens were enclosed in containers filled with paraffin to ensure accur ate repositioning and to obtain an absorption condition comparable to that of a human extremity imaging was performed with a selenium-based digital ra diography system, a conventional screen-film system, and a storage phosphor radiography system with an exposure identical to that used during clinical imaging. The presence of a lesion was assessed with a five-point confidenc e scale. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed for a total of 1,440 observations (480 per modality), and diagnostic performan ce was estimated with the area under the ROC curve (A,). Differences in dia gnostic performance were assessed with the paired Student t test. RESULTS: ROC analysis results showed A, values of 0.656 for selenium-based digital radiography, 0.679 for storage phosphor radiography, and 0.680 for conventional screen-film radiography. Differences between the three modalit ies were not significant (P =.60-.93). CONCLUSION: Image quality with selenium-based digital radiography was compa rable to that with conventional screen-film radiography and storage phospho r radiography.