Liquid-crystal display monitors and cathode-ray tube monitors: a comparison of observer performance in the detection of small solitary pulmonary nodules.
OBJECTIVE
To compare observer performance using liquid-crystal display (LCD) and cathode-ray tube (CRT) monitors in the interpretation of soft-copy chest radiographs for the detection of small solitary pulmonary nodules.


METHODS
By reviewing our Medical Center's radiologic information system, the eight radiologists participating in this study (three board-certified and five resident) retrospectively collected 40 chest radiographs showing a solitary noncalcified pulmonary nodule approximately 1 cm in diameter, and 40 normal chest radiographs. All were obtained using a storage-phosphor system, and CT scans of the same patients served as the gold standard for the presence of a pulmonary nodule. Digital images were displayed on both high-resolution LCD and CRT monitors. The readers were requested to rank each image using a fivepoint scale (1 = definitely negative, 3 = equivocal or indeterminate, 5 = definitely positive), and the data were interpreted using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis.


RESULTS
The mean area under the ROC curve was 0.8901+/- 0.0259 for the LCD session, and 0.8716+/- 0.0266 for the CRT session (p > 0.05). The reading time for the LCD session was not significantly different from that for the CRT session (37.12 and 41.46 minutes, respectively; p = 0.889).


CONCLUSIONS
For detecting small solitary pulmonary nodules, an LCD monitor and a CRT monitor are comparable.
Hwang
Soon-A
SA
Department of Radiology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. seojb@amc.seoul.kr
Seo
Joon Beom
JB
Choi
Byeong-Kyoo
BK
Do
Kyung-Hyun
KH
Ko
Sung Min
SM
Lee
Soo-Hyun
SH
Lee
Jin-Seong
JS
Song
Jae-Woo
JW
Song
Koun-Sik
KS
Lim
Tae-Hwan
TH
D003626:Data Display; D006801:Humans; D015588:Observer Variation; D012372:ROC Curve; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement; D003074:Solitary Pulmonary Nodule / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*