Evaluate The Influence Of Medical Monochrome Displays With Different Resolutions For The Interpretation Of DR Chest Images

ObjectiveEvaluate the influence of the medical monochrome displays with different resolutions for the interpretation of DR chest images,and approach the allocation scheme of diagnostic displays in the radiology department.MethodsBy reviewing PACS,two residents collected 93 DR chest images on-line.These radiographs included 26 normal images,29 doubtful images,and 38 positive images that had nodules.All images were confirmed by CT.These nodules were all non-calcification ones and their diameters ranged from 0.3cm to 1.9cm.There were 6 patients who had non-calcification inflammation confirmed by CT in the doubtful images.The number of patients who had multi-nodules was 10.Three of high-,mid-and low-experienced radiologists who participated in the ROC study interpreted the 93 images using three types of displays with different resolutions[Barco Z-2261(spacial resolution,1600×1200),Barco Z-3620(spacial resolution,2048×1536),Barco Z-5620(spacial resolution,2560×2048)],respectively.The time interval was at least one week in order to eliminate the influence of the study.The image adjustment and reading time was not imposed on any observer.All observers marked their confidence of the presence of pulmonary nodule with five-point level rating scale:(1)definitely positive,(2)probably positive,(3)uncertain,(4)probably negative,(5)definitely negative. Also the observers gave their confidence level of the visibility of lung markings with three-point rating scale:(1)excellent,(2)fine,(3)general.Software SPSS 13.0 was used to paint the ROC curves and analyze the interpreting scores. Results1,The areas under the ROC curves of 2MP display,3MP display and 5MP display were 0.774,0.784,0.816 for high-experienced radiologists;for mid-experienced ones those were 0.754,0.764,0.768;for low-experienced ones those were 0.695,0.754,0.774. However for the detection of pulmonary nodules without the constraint on the use of post-processing tools and reading time,there was no significant difference among the different aptitudes of observers using the same type of display,and also there was no significant difference among the different types of displays used by observers with the same aptitude.2,For the visible quality of pulmonary markings,there was no significant difference among the different types of displays used by the observers with the same aptitude;there was no significant difference among observers with different aptitudes using either 2MP display or 3MP display.However when using 5MP display there was significant difference between high-and low-experienced radiologists and between high-and mid-experienced radiologists(the P results were 0.004 and 0.035,both lower than 0.05.),the difference did not reach the significant level among mid-and low-experienced radiologists.ConclusionIt is equivalent for detection performance with 2MP,3MP and 5MP medical monochrome LCD when detecting pulmonary nodules;when detecting the lung markings high-experienced radiologists could get the most information by using 5MP display;for radiology department,it is advisable to combine the diagnosis workstation system with high-,mid-and low-resolution monitors,and reasonable equipment scheme between different types of displays and different aptitudes of doctors could result in better cost-efficacy.