Sharpness and noise in digital chest radiographs, assessed by visual rating
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2015-11-30Metadata
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Ween, B., & Jacobsen, J. Å. (2015). Sharpness and noise in digital chest radiographs, assessed by visual rating. Radiography Open, 2(1), 30-51.Abstract
Missed lung lesions are one of the most frequent causes of malpractice issues, caused by severalreasons; among them suboptimal radiography. When radiographers interpret acquired images of apatient, an acceptance or rejection must be decided. When a retake is required, radiographersneed to know how to improve the image quality. Improvements in image quality properties ascontrast, sharpness and noise often lead to improved perception, which in turn should enablemore information to the observer and also allow computer-assisted detection (CAD) to be moresuccessful.Our aim was to create a scoring system of the principal limiting factors sharpness and noise, in aclinical setting, and to determine whether it is possible to agree on image quality on digital chestradiographs. To enable a variation in rating due to body habits, a three-graded scale for each ofsharpness and noise were created. Five different anatomical landmarks in each of patients havingbody sizes lean, normal and large were evaluated by 27 radiographers; totally 810 scores weregiven.The results showed a high inter-observer agreement with respect to rating grades of bothsharpness and noise, independent of projection, anatomical landmark and body habits. Thepresent study is a first step in the development of a scale for assessing sharpness and noise indigital chest radiography. The method of quality assessment might become more valid withincreased use. We propose that this study can be followed up by a systematic mentor-guidedtraining program that links perception of image quality to feedback about the image retakedecisions if required.