Abstract
Quality control is fundamental to the clinical application of digital radiography. A 14×17-in phantom radiograph was designed to test digital image quality by measurement of five parameters: high-contrast spatial resolution, low-contrast discrimination, linearity of gray-scale response, high-frequency noise, and geometric distortion. The phantom was used to evaluate the AT&T-Philips CommView picture archival and communications system (AT&T Bell Laboratories, West Long Branch, NJ; Philips Medical Systems, Shelton, CT). High-contrast resolution was found to be greater along the diagonal axis of the system than along either the horizontal or vertical axis. Problems with low-contrast discrimination and linearity of gray-scale response were identified. This phantom provides a simple tool for daily quality assurance testing and an objective standard for comparison of image quality between different digital radiography systems.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Gayler BW, Gitlin JN, Rappaport W, et al: Teleradiology: An evaluation of a microcomputer-based system. Radiology 140:355–360, 1981
Curtis DJ, Gayler BW, Gitlin JN, et al: Teleradiology: Results of a field trial. Radiology 149:415–418, 1983
Goodman LR, Roley WD, Wilson CR, et al: Digital and conventional chest images: Observer performance with film digital radiography system. Radiology 158:27–33, 1986
Kagetsu NJ, Zulauf DRP, Ablow RC: Clinical trial of digital teleradiology in the practice of emergency room radiology. Radiology 165:551–554, 1987
Kundel HL, Mezrich JL, Brickman I, et al: Digital chest imaging: Comparison of two film image digitizers with a classification task. Radiology 165:747–752, 1987
Vranckx J, Strul B: Performance evaluation of a laser digitizer. SPIE Proceedings 767:524–528, 1987
High M, Cohen G, Lin PJ, et al: Performance evaluation and quality assurance in digital subtraction angiography, in American Association of Physicists (ed): Medicine Report No. 15. New York, NY, American Institute of Physics, 1985
Gray JE, Lisk KG, Haddick DH, Harshbarger JH, Oosterhof A, Schwenker R: Test pattern for video displays and hard-copy cameras. Radiology 154:519–527, 1985
Dainty J, Shaw R: Image Science, London, England, Academic, 1974
Haus AG (ed): The Physics of Medical Imaging: Recording System Measurements and Techniques. New York, NY, American Association of Physicists in Medicine, 1979
Brody WR: Digital Radiography. New York, NY, Raven, 1984
Barrett HH, Swindell W: Radiographic Imaging: The Theory of Formation, Detection and Processing. New York, NY, Academic, 1981
Burgess AE, Humphrey K, Wagner RF: Detection of bars and discs in quantum noise. SPIE Proceedings of 173:34–40, 1979
Rossi RP, Hendee WR, Chuck R, et al: An evaluation of rare earth screen/film combinations. Radiology 121:465–471, 1976
Rose A. Vision: Human and Electronic. New York, NY, Plenumum, 1974
Cohen G, Wagner LK, Amtey SR, et al: Contrast-detail-dose and dose efficiency analysis of a scanning digital and a screen-film-grid radiographic system. Med Phys 8:358–367, 1981
Haus AG, Rossman K, Vyborny C, et al: Sensitometry in diagnostic radiology, radiation therapy and nuclear medicine. J Appl Photo Eng 3:144, 1977
Wagner RF: Toward a unified view of radiological imaging systems, part II: Noisy images. Med Phys 4:279–296, 1977
Kundel HL, Revesz G, Stauffer HM: Evaluation of television image processing. Invest Radiol 3:44–50, 1968
Revesz G, Kundel HL: Effects of non-linearities on television display of x-ray images. Invest Radiol 6:315–320, 1971
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Halpern, E.J., Esser, P.D., Nickoloff, E.L. et al. A quality-control phantom for digitization of radiographs. J Digit Imaging 3, 42 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03168110
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03168110