INTERPRETATION OF SUBTLE INTERSTITIAL LUNG ABNORMALITIES - CONVENTIONAL VERSUS FILM-DIGITIZED RADIOGRAPHY

PURPOSE: To evaluate the reliability of film-digitized radiography in detection of subtle interstitial lung abnormalities. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The differences in interpretation of conventional screen-film (SF) and film-digitized (FD) radiographs obtained in 80 patients were studied. Forty patients with subtle interstitial lung abnormalities and 40 patients with no lung abnormalities were selected. SF radiographs of all patients were digitized (spatial resolution, 0.175 mm; 2,000 x 2,000 pixels; 10 bits). Five chest radiologists and five residents evaluated the images with a five-level scale of confidence. Results were evaluated with receiver operating characteristic techniques. RESULTS: For the entire group, no statistically significant differences in performance were found between SF and FD radiographs. Chest radiologists performed better on SF radiographs (P = .003). For residents, no statistically significant differences were observed between the modalities. CONCLUSION: FD radiographs may be inadequate compared with SF radiographs in the diagnosis of subtle interstitial lung abnormalities.