Quality of individually calibrated customary printers for assessment of typical dental diagnoses on glossy paper prints: a multicenter pilot study.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to compare dental radiographs printed on glossy paper from calibrated low-cost printers with monitor display.


METHODS
Three typical intraoral radiographs were selected and a questionnaire was developed with questions assessing accuracy and subjective quality. A test pattern was designed for printer calibration. After calibration, radiographs were printed on glossy paper with 3 ink-jet and 2 thermo-sublimation printers. Sixteen raters evaluated the printed radiographs, 9 of them also on standardized viewing monitors. Subjective ratings were compared, and an ROC-analysis based on expert-consensus monitor readings was performed.


RESULTS
Low inter-rater reproducibility (mean Cohen's Kappa monitor: 0.49; printers: 0.44), but high diagnostic accuracy was found for all printers (areas [Az] underneath the ROC curves: 0.725 to 0.884). The overlap between the 95% Az confidence intervals of the mean indicate no significant differences.


CONCLUSIONS
Our preliminary findings indicate that dental radiographs may be evaluated on glossy paper prints of calibrated customary printers.
Schulze
Ralf K
RK
Departments of Oral Surgery (and Oral Radiology), Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany.
Schulze
Dirk
D
Voss
Kai
K
Rottner
Michael
M
Keller
Hans-Peter
HP
Dollmann
Karin
K
Maager
Burkhard
B
Wedel
Matthias
M
D002138:Calibration; D016287:Computer Peripherals / Q000191:economics; D003945:Diagnosis, Oral / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006801:Humans; D015588:Observer Variation; D010209:Paper; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011327:Printing / Q000191:economics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012372:ROC Curve; D019252:Radiography, Dental, Digital / Q000191:economics / Q000295:instrumentation*