Image Quality of Digital Direct Flat-Panel Mammography Versus an Indirect Small-Field CCD Technique Using a High-Contrast Phantom

Figure 2

Mean absolute interrater variability of the 4 radiologists’ ratings from an experimentally preset reference values for each quadrant of the 48 universal laser printer films are presented here in box plots for the variables “number” and “size” separately for each rater. Statistical outliers are labeled with a dot (•). In the global comparison of all simulated microcalcifications, the diagnostic accuracy of direct digital flat-panel detector mammography system versus the small-field CCD stereotactic breast biopsy system utilizing was comparable, and independently of number, size, or shape of the silica beads.

(a) Criteria: “Number" of detectable microcalcifications

(b) Criteria: “Size" of detectable microcalcifications