<title>Comparative evaluation of conventional and zero-crossover rare-earth screen-film systems in pediatric chest radiography</title>

Abstract

ABSTRACFThis study compares the image quality of conventional and zero-crossover symmetric and asymmetric rareearth screen film systems for the specific imaging task ofchest radiography in pediatric patients by means of evaluation of the visualization of anatomic landmarks.Advances in anticrossover technology in double emulsion film have made it possible to design each emulsion layer in a double-emulsion film as ifit were a distinct system.Chest radiographs of 120 pediatric patients performed with one of six screen-film systems (two conventional rare-earth, two zero crossover symmetric and two zero crossover asymmetric screen-film systems) were evaluated for image quality by three radiologist observers. The evaluation was based on the visualization of anatomic landmarks and the subjective evaluation of the physical properties of each film.InSight VHC Thoracic Imaging system with IPC film and Pediatric InSight screens with InSight Pediatric film were ranked highest by the radiologist observers both with respect to the visualization of anatomic landmarks and the subjective evaluation ofthe physical properties ofthe systems. The difference between these two systems was not statistically significant (p'zO.05), however, the ranking ofthese systems is statistically different (p<O.O5) relative to the remaining four screen-film systems.Zero-crossover screen-film systems have been shown to provide improved image performance for the specific task of pediatric chest radiography based upon the evaluation of the visualization of anatomic landmarks relative to conventional systems evaluated in this study.