title: Image quality vs. radiation dose for a flat-panel amorphous silicon detector: a phantom study.
abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the image quality for a flat-panel amorphous silicon detector at various radiation dose settings and to compare the results with storage phosphor plates and a screen-film system. A CDRAD 2.0 contrast-detail phantom was imaged with a flat-panel detector (Philips Medical Systems, Eindhoven, The Netherlands) at three different dose levels with settings for intravenous urography. The same phantom was imaged with storage phosphor plates at a simulated system speed of 200 and a screen-film system with a system speed of 160. Entrance surface doses were recorded for all images. At each setting, three images were read by four independent observers. The flat-panel detector had equal image quality at less than half the radiation dose compared with storage phosphor plates. The difference was even larger when compared with film with the flat-panel detector having equal image quality at approximately one-fifth the dose. The flat-panel detector has a very favourable combination of image quality vs radiation dose compared with storage phosphor plates and screen film.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Orebro Medical Centre Hospital, 701 85 Orebro, Sweden. hakan.geijer@orebroll.se
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Geijer
authors.forename: K W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Beckman
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Andersson
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Persliden
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011874:Radiometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D012825:Silicon; D014567:Urography / Q000295:instrumentation; D014963:X-Ray Intensifying Screens
chemical_list: D012825:Silicon