Fabiszewska Ewa, Pasicz Katarzyna, Grabska Iwona, Skrzyński Witold, Ślusarczyk-Kacprzyk Wioletta, Bulski Wojciech
Department of Medical Physics, The Maria Skłodowska-Curie Memorial Cancer Center and Institute of Oncology, Warsaw, Poland.
Pol J Radiol. 2017 Dec 15;82:773-782. doi: 10.12659/PJR.904135. eCollection 2017.
Regular quality control is required in Poland only for those methods of medical imaging which involve the use of ionizing radiation but not for ultrasonography. It is known that the quality of ultrasound images may be affected by the wearing down or malfunctioning of equipment.
MATERIAL/METHODS: An evaluation of image quality was carried out for 22 ultrasound scanners equipped with 46 transducers. The CIRS Phantom model 040GSE was used. A set of tests was established which could be carried out with the phantom, including: depth of penetration, dead zone, distance measurement accuracy, resolution, uniformity, and visibility of structures.
While the dead zone was 0 mm for 89% of transducers, it was 3 mm for the oldest transducer. The distances measured agreed with the actual distances by 1 mm or less in most cases, with the largest difference of 2.6 mm. The resolution in the axial direction for linear transducers did not exceed 1 mm, but it reached even 5 mm for some of the convex and sector transducers, especially at higher depths and in the lateral direction. For 29% of transducers, some distortions of anechoic structures were observed. Artifacts were detected for several transducers.
The results will serve as a baseline for future testing. Several cases of suboptimal image quality were identified along with differences in performance between similar transducers. The results could be used to decide on the applicability of a given scanner or transducer for a particular kind of examination.
在波兰，仅对那些涉及使用电离辐射的医学成像方法要求进行定期质量控制，而对超声检查则无此要求。众所周知，超声图像的质量可能会受到设备磨损或故障的影响。
材料/方法：对配备46个换能器的22台超声扫描仪的图像质量进行了评估。使用了CIRS Phantom 040GSE模型。建立了一套可以使用该模型进行的测试，包括：穿透深度、盲区、距离测量精度、分辨率、均匀性和结构可见性。
89%的换能器盲区为0毫米，而最旧的换能器盲区为3毫米。在大多数情况下，测量的距离与实际距离相差1毫米或更小，最大差值为2.6毫米。线性换能器在轴向的分辨率不超过1毫米，但对于一些凸阵和扇形换能器，特别是在较深深度和横向方向，分辨率甚至达到5毫米。在29%的换能器中，观察到无回声结构有一些失真。几个换能器检测到伪像。
这些结果将作为未来测试的基线。发现了几例图像质量欠佳的情况，以及类似换能器之间性能的差异。这些结果可用于确定特定扫描仪或换能器对特定类型检查的适用性。
