The influence of liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors on observer performance for the detection of nodular lesions on chest radiographs.
OBJECTIVE
To access the influence of liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors on the detectability of nodular lesions depicted on chest radiographs by comparing them with a high-resolution cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor.


METHODS
Ten radiologists interpreted 247 soft-copy images on LCD monitors with pixel arrays of 1,024x1,280, 1,200x1,600, 1,536x2,048 and 2,048x2,560, and a CRT monitor with a pixel array of 2,048x2,560, and were asked to indicate their individual confidence levels regarding the presence of a nodule. These images were chest radiographs with and without a lung nodule from the "Standard Digital Image Database" created by the Japanese Society of Radiological Technology. The luminance distributions of all monitors were adjusted to the same, and the ambient illumination was 200 lux. Observer performance was analyzed in terms of the receiver-operating characteristics.


RESULTS
No significant statistical differences in nodule detection performance were found among the four LCD monitors and the CRT monitor.


CONCLUSIONS
The nodule detection performance on the LCD monitors with a spatial resolution higher than a matrix size of 1,024x1,280 was found to be equivalent to that on the high-resolution CRT monitor.
Usami
H
H
Department of Radiology, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, 65 Tsurumai-cho, Showa-ku, Nagoya, 466-8560, Japan. hus-ygc@umin.ac.jp
Ikeda
M
M
Ishigaki
T
T
Fukushima
H
H
Shimamoto
K
K
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003626:Data Display; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D050866:Liquid Crystals; D008297:Male; D012372:ROC Curve; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic; D003074:Solitary Pulmonary Nodule / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*