SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO RATE MEASUREMENT IN FLUOROSCOPY FOR QUALITY CONTROL AND TEACHING GOOD RADIOLOGICAL IMAGING TECHNIQUE

Visibility of low-contrast details in fluoroscopy and interventional radiology is important. Assessing detail visibility with human observers typically suffers from large observer variances. Objective, quantitative measurement of low-contrast detail visibility using a model observer, such as the square of the signal-to-noise ratio rate (SNR(2)(rate)), was implemented in MATLAB™ and evaluated. The expected linear response of SNR(2)(rate) based on predictions by the so-called Rose model and frame statistics was verified. The uncertainty in the measurement of SNR(2)(rate) for a fixed imaging geometry was 6% based on 16 repeated measurements. The results show that, as expected, reduced object thickness and x-ray field size substantially improved SNR(2)(rate)/P(KA,rate) with P(KA,rate) being the air kerma area product rate. The measurement precision in SNR(2)(rate)/P(KA,rate) (8–9%) is sufficient to detect small but important improvements, may guide the selection of better imaging settings and provides a tool for teaching good radiological imaging techniques to clinical staff.