Development of a Computer Simulation Technique for Low-dose Chest Radiographs: a Phantom Study

Overview

Journal Radiol Phys Technol

Specialties Biophysics
Biotechnology
Radiology

Date 2020 Feb 7

PMID 32026403

Authors

Rie Murakami

Shigehiko Katsuragawa

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The present study aimed to develop a simple computer simulation method of low-dose radiographs based on a radiograph acquired at a clinical-dose level. A chest phantom was used for the development of this method. In this method, a simulated low-dose image was obtained from a clinical-dose image using an input-output characteristic curve of a flat panel detector and noise metrics of the standard deviation (SD) and noise power spectrum. We applied this method for low-dose images of a chest phantom to evaluate the simulation accuracy. The noise SDs were compared between the simulated and real images corresponding to 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8 of clinical doses. The relative error of noise SDs in the chest phantom images was less than 3%. Therefore, we believe that the proposed simulation method has the potential to be useful for determination of the optimal exposure condition in chest radiography to reduce patients' exposure dose.

References

Hendee W, Edwards F . ALARA and an integrated approach to radiation protection. Semin Nucl Med. 1986; 16(2):142-50. DOI: 10.1016/s0001-2998(86)80027-7. View

Willis C, Slovis T . The ALARA concept in pediatric CR and DR: dose reduction in pediatric radiographic exams--a white paper conference executive summary. Pediatr Radiol. 2004; 34 Suppl 3:S162-4. DOI: 10.1007/s00247-004-1264-y. View

Moores B, Regulla D . A review of the scientific basis for radiation protection of the patient. Radiat Prot Dosimetry. 2011; 147(1-2):22-9. DOI: 10.1093/rpd/ncr262. View

Sund P, Bath M, Kheddache S, Mansson L . Comparison of visual grading analysis and determination of detective quantum efficiency for evaluating system performance in digital chest radiography. Eur Radiol. 2003; 14(1):48-58. DOI: 10.1007/s00330-003-1971-z. View

Bath M, Hakansson M, Tingberg A, Mansson L . Method of simulating dose reduction for digital radiographic systems. Radiat Prot Dosimetry. 2005; 114(1-3):253-9. DOI: 10.1093/rpd/nch540. View

Veldkamp W, Kroft L, van Delft J, Geleijns J . A technique for simulating the effect of dose reduction on image quality in digital chest radiography. J Digit Imaging. 2008; 22(2):114-25. PMC: 3043684. DOI: 10.1007/s10278-008-9104-5. View

Saunders Jr R, Samei E . A method for modifying the image quality parameters of digital radiographic images. Med Phys. 2003; 30(11):3006-17. DOI: 10.1118/1.1621870. View

Veldkamp W, Kroft L, Geleijns J . Dose and perceived image quality in chest radiography. Eur J Radiol. 2009; 72(2):209-17. DOI: 10.1016/j.ejrad.2009.05.039. View

Samei E, Flynn M, EYLER W . Detection of subtle lung nodules: relative influence of quantum and anatomic noise on chest radiographs. Radiology. 1999; 213(3):727-34. DOI: 10.1148/radiology.213.3.r99dc19727. View

10.

Uffmann M, Schaefer-Prokop C . Digital radiography: the balance between image quality and required radiation dose. Eur J Radiol. 2009; 72(2):202-8. DOI: 10.1016/j.ejrad.2009.05.060. View

11.

. Radiological protection and safety in medicine. A report of the International Commission on Radiological Protection. Ann ICRP. 1996; 26(2):1-47. View

12.

Tanaka R, Ichikawa K, Matsubara K, Kawashima H . Review of a simple noise simulation technique in digital radiography. Radiol Phys Technol. 2012; 5(2):178-85. DOI: 10.1007/s12194-012-0152-7. View

13.

Bochud F, Valley J, Verdun F, Hessler C, Schnyder P . Estimation of the noisy component of anatomical backgrounds. Med Phys. 1999; 26(7):1365-70. DOI: 10.1118/1.598632. View