This work investigated the substitution of CDMAM contrast detail (c-d) analysis with detectability (d’) from a nonprewhitening eye filter model observer (NPWE) for routine quality control (QC). Routinely acquired QC data for 53 systems were analyzed: 13 computed radiography (CR) and 40 integrated detector (DR) systems. For a given system, threshold gold thickness from the c-d analysis (T) was calculated from 16 images and compared against d’ calculated for 0.1 and 0.25 mm diameter discs. The d’ data were calculated from the routine 50 mm PMMA AEC image and the measured pre-sampling detector modulation transfer function (MTF). Threshold gold thickness T and d’ were plotted as function of MGD and compared. The Fuji CR and the Agfa CR systems had the highest T values compared to the other systems. The Hologic systems were found to have a low value of T, compared to the other systems, for both disc diameters. The NPWE results reflected the performance seen for T data for the majority of the systems with the exception of the Fuji CR and Konica CR systems. The Hologic systems gave unexpectedly low d’ results or unexpectedly low T values. The correspondence between the two quality indices was examined with the Pearson correlation statistical test. This test was not applicable to the GE Essential systems because all systems are grouped together at the same working point so the result of r is about 0. For all other groups of systems the test gave good results (larger than -0.65).

Date Published: 6 March 2013
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 8668, Medical Imaging 2013: Physics of Medical Imaging, 866821 (6 March 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2002408

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8668:
Medical Imaging 2013: Physics of Medical Imaging
Robert M. Nishikawa; Bruce R. Whiting; Christoph Hoeschen, Editor(s)