The use of a measure with a strong correlation with the visual system to analyze the influence of the acquisition conditions over image quality in panoramic dental images

Abstract

The High Dynamic Range Visible Difference Predictor (HDR-VDP) was created to overcome the poor correlation between objective and subjective digital image quality criteria. This metric has been successfully tested to analyze the effect of medical images compression over image quality. A study using 13 dental panoramic images of an anthropomorphic phantom was carried out. Images were acquired with a digital Kodak equipment. Tube current and beam energy were changed among studies in order to analyze how the image quality was affected by the acquisition parameters variation. The criterion about image quality of two expert observers was taken into account. Furthermore, HDR-VDP was fitted to the problem under analysis. Correlation between the metric and the subjective criterion was also analyzed. HDR-VDP had a correlation of r = 0.683 (p = 0. 013) with respect to the subjective criterion. The metric calculated over 9 x 9 pixel windows in regions of interest was able to detect differences in image quality for a typical range of kVp and mA in this type of study.