Montero Isabel, Sotoudeh-Paima Saman, Abadi Ehsan, Samei Ehsan
Center for Virtual Imaging Trials, Carl E. Ravin Advanced Imaging Laboratories, Department of Radiology, Duke University, NC, United States.
Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng. 2025 Feb;13405. doi: 10.1117/12.3047016. Epub 2025 Apr 8.
The increased development and production of Computed Tomography (CT) scanner technology has expanded patient access to advanced and affordable medical imaging technologies but has also introduced sources of variability in the clinical imaging landscape, which may influence patient care. This study examines the impact of intra-scanner and inter-scanner variability on image quality and quantitative imaging tasks, with a focus on the detectability index (d') as a measure of patient-specific task performance. We evaluated 813 clinical phantom image sets from the COPDGene study, aggregated by CT scanner make, model, and acquisition and reconstruction protocol. Each phantom image set was assessed for image quality metrics, including the Noise Power Spectrum (NPS) and in-plane Modulation Transfer Function (MTF). The d' index was calculated for 12 hypothetical lesion detection tasks, emulating clinically relevant lung and liver lesions of varying sizes and contrast levels. Qualitatively, analysis showed intra-scanner variability in NPS and MTF curves measured for identical acquisition and reconstruction settings. Inter-scanner comparisons demonstrated variability in d' measurements across different scanner makes and models, of similar acquisition and reconstruction settings. The study showed an intra-scanner variability of up to 13.7% and an inter-scanner variability of up to 19.3% in the d' index. These findings emphasize the need for considering scanner variability in patient-centered care and indicate that CT technology may influence the reliability of imaging tasks. The results of this study further motivate the development of virtual scanner models to better model and mitigate the variability observed in the clinical imaging landscape.
计算机断层扫描（CT）扫描仪技术的不断发展和生产，扩大了患者获得先进且价格合理的医学成像技术的机会，但同时也在临床成像领域引入了变异性来源，这可能会影响患者护理。本研究考察了扫描仪内部和扫描仪之间的变异性对图像质量和定量成像任务的影响，重点关注可检测性指数（d'），将其作为衡量患者特定任务表现的指标。我们评估了慢性阻塞性肺疾病基因（COPDGene）研究中的813组临床体模图像集，这些图像集按CT扫描仪的品牌、型号以及采集和重建协议进行汇总。对每组体模图像集进行图像质量指标评估，包括噪声功率谱（NPS）和面内调制传递函数（MTF）。针对12项假设的病变检测任务计算d'指数，模拟不同大小和对比度水平的临床相关肺部和肝脏病变。定性分析表明，在相同的采集和重建设置下，测量得到的NPS和MTF曲线存在扫描仪内部变异性。扫描仪之间的比较显示，在相似的采集和重建设置下，不同品牌和型号的扫描仪在d'测量值上存在变异性。研究表明，d'指数的扫描仪内部变异性高达13.7%，扫描仪之间的变异性高达19.3%。这些发现强调了在以患者为中心的护理中考虑扫描仪变异性的必要性，并表明CT技术可能会影响成像任务的可靠性。本研究结果进一步推动了虚拟扫描仪模型的开发，以更好地模拟和减轻临床成像领域中观察到的变异性。
