Intra- and inter-scanner CT variability and their impact on diagnostic tasks

The increase of commercially available Computed Tomography (CT) scanner technologies has expanded patient access to advanced imaging technologies but has also introduced potential sources of variability that could impact patient care. This study investigated the influence of intra- and inter-scanner variability on image quality and quantitative imaging tasks, which was accomplished through the evaluation of detectability index (d’). We analyzed 631 clinical phantom images from the COPDGene study and assessed image quality metrics: Noise Power Spectrum (NPS) and Modulation Transfer Function (MTF). Results demonstrated observable variations in NPS and MTF across identical acquisitions, and notable differences in d’ values across different scanner models. These findings emphasize the importance of considering scanner variability in patient care and encourage the development of clinically-diverse virtual CT scanner models to better gauge its impact.