Image quality evaluation system for dental digital radiology

Author(s)

Tiago Freire Carneiro Leão

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de Computação
• Defense date: 2009-06-17

Examining board members

Eduardo Tavares Costa; Homero Schiabel; Sérgio Santos Muhlen

• Advisor: Eduardo Tavares Costa

Abstract

New systems and technologies for radiation detection intended for dental radiology have become available as an alternative to dental radiographic film. Systems based on PSPL technology seems to overcome some of the restrictions of systems based on CCD technology such as the bulky detector, connecting wire, limited image size and limited exposure latitude. It is important that competing imaging systems can be compared (different technologies or different manufacturers of the same technology) by means of quality control tools and quality certification protocols. A software package and a set of specific phantoms were developed and the analyses of two competing PSPL systems were conducted to validate the developed system. The software allows the user to obtain and analyze: the characteristic curve, modulation transfer function (MTF), noise power spectrum (NPS), noise equivalent quanta (NEQ) and detective quantum efficiency (DQE). The results have shown that the developed software and phantom set allow quality control of digital dental radiology systems in a very objective and quantitative way, facilitating comparative analysis of competing commercial systems. Keywords: Digital dental radiology, quality assurance in radiodiagnostic, characteristic curve, detective quantum efficiency, modulation transfer function, noise power spectrum, noise equivalent quanta. (AU)