title: Quality index of radiological devices: results of one year of use.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The physical quality index (QI) of radiological devices summarises in a single numerical value between 0 and 1 the results of constancy tests. The aim of this paper is to illustrate the results of the use of such an index on all public radiological devices in the Livorno province over one year.
  
  
  METHODS
  The quality index was calculated for 82 radiological devices of a wide range of types by implementing its algorithm in a spreadsheet-based software for the automatic handling of quality control data.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The distribution of quality index values was computed together with the associated statistical quantities. This distribution is strongly asymmetrical, with a sharp peak near the highest QI values. The mean quality index values for the different types of device show some inhomogeneity: in particular, mammography and panoramic dental radiography devices show far lower quality than other devices. In addition, our analysis has identified the parameters that most frequently do not pass the quality tests for each type of device. Finally, we sought some correlation between quality and age of the device, but this was poorly significant.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The quality index proved to be a useful tool providing an overview of the physical conditions of radiological devices. By selecting adequate QI threshold values for, it also helps to decide whether a given device should be upgraded or replaced. The identification of critical parameters for each type of device may be used to improve the definition of the QI by attributing greater weights to critical parameters, so as to better address the maintenance of radiological devices.
authors.affiliation: Unità Operativa di Fisica Sanitaria, Azienda USL N. 6, Livorno, Italy. a.tofani@us16.toscana.it
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tofani
authors.forename: Patrizia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Imbordino
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lecci
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bonannini
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Del Corona
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pizzi
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D011786:Quality Control; D013679:Technology, Radiologic / Q000295:instrumentation*