Conventional and predicted Perceptibility Curves for contrast-enhanced direct digital intraoral radiographs

Objectives: To construct Perceptibility Curves (PCs) for contrast-enhanced digital intraoral radiographs Methods: Radiographs of a test object having holes of increasing depths were exposed using three digital systems, the CDR (Schick Technologies, Long Island, NY, USA), the Dixel (J Morita MFG, Kyoto, Japan) and the Sens-A-Ray (Regam Medical Systems, Sundsvall, Sweden). The radiographs were contrast-enhanced and PCs constructed in the conventional way using 10 observers. Predicted PCs were calculated and compared with observer data. Results: The PCs showed that contrast enhancement is effective for the perception of small contrast details, especially in the low exposure range. Predicted PCs demonstrated excellent agreement with observer data. Conclusions: Contrast enhancement should be advantageous in digital radiography. The effects of contrast enhancement on PCs may be predicted without previous knowledge of observer performance.