Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, Vol 24, Issue 4 232-237, Copyright © 1995 by British Institute of Radiology

ARTICLES

Accuracy in detecting bone lesions in vitro with conventional and subtracted direct digital imaging

A. Stassinakis, U. Bragger, M. Stojanovic, W. Burgin, A. Lussi and N. P. Lang
School of Dental Medicine, University of Bern, Switzerland.

OBJECTIVE: To implement direct digital imaging (DDI) in subtraction radiography and compare the accuracy of conventional and subtracted DD images in detecting small bone lesions in vitro. METHODS: Alveolar bone defects were produced in a section of a pig mandible, with slow-speed burs 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1.0, 1.2, 1.4 mm in diameter. Standardized DD images were subtracted and displayed in black and white, contrast-enhanced and pseudo-colour transformed formats. 370 pairs of slides taken directly from the computer monitor were evaluated by eight observers. RESULTS: The area P(A) under the ROC curve with DDI was 0.67 +/- 0.1. This was significantly lower (p < 0.001) than any of the three modes of subtraction radiography (mean P(A) = 0.88 +/- 0.09). The detection of small lesions (bur diameter 0.6 mm) was significantly better (p < 0.001) with contrast enhancement. Observer agreement was smaller for DDI (chi = 0.22 +/- 0.09) compared with the subtraction images (mean chi 0.64 +/- 0.13) (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The diagnostic characteristics of the DDI system were significantly improved by digital subtraction with image processing.

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