Harmonisation of the appearance of digital radiographs from different vendors by means of common external image processing.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the use of common external image processing to compensate for differences in appearance between digital X-ray images from different vendors. Twenty posteroanterior chest radiographs were collected from each of three different modalities from different vendors (GE, Siemens and Canon) with vendor-specific image processing applied. The images were also extracted with neutral process parameters and processed with external image-processing software. Six experienced radiologists rated the quality and the similarity of the images with the original Siemens images. The externally processed GE images were rated of higher quality than the original GE images and more similar to the original Siemens images (p < 0.001). The opposite was obtained for the Canon images. The externally processed Siemens images were rated of similar quality as the original images. The present study indicates the possibility of using common external image processing to harmonise the appearance of images from different vendors, although the exposure parameters may need to be adjusted for individual vendors.