Cite this article as: Jadidi M, Sundin A, Aspelin P, Båth M, Nyrén S. Evaluation of a new system for chest tomosynthesis: aspects of image quality of different protocols determined using an anthropomorphic phantom. Objective: To compare the image quality obtained with the different protocols in a new chest digital tomosynthesis (DTS) system. Methods: A chest phantom was imaged with chest X-ray equipment with DTS. 10 protocols were used, and for each protocol, nine acquisitions were performed. Four observers visually rated the quality of the reconstructed section images according to pre-defined quality criteria in four different classes. The data were analysed with visual grading characteristics (VGC) analysis, using the vendorrecommended protocol [12-s acquisition time, source-toimage distance (SID) 180 cm] as reference, and the area under the VGC curve (AUC VGC ) was determined for each protocol and class of criteria.Results: Protocols with a smaller swing angle resulted in a lower image quality for the classes of criteria "disturbance" and "homogeneity in nodule" but a higher image quality for the class "structure". The class "demarcation" showed little dependency on the swing angle. All protocols but one (6.3 s, SID 130 cm) obtained an AUC VGC significantly ,0.5 (indicating lower quality than reference) for at least one class of criteria.
Conclusion:The study indicates that the DTS protocol with 6.3 s yields image quality similar to that obtained with the vendor-recommended protocol (12 s) but with the clinically important advantage for patients with respiratory impairment of a shorter acquisition time.
Advances in knowledge:The study demonstrates that the image quality may be strongly affected by the choice of protocol and that the vendor-recommended protocol may not be optimal.