Adapting the CDRH Abdominal Phantom for Dose-image Quality Optimisation in Abdominal Radiography

Abstract

To evaluate medical X-ray doses and image quality, so called
phantoms that mimic particular aspects of the patient are used.
The Centre for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) had
designed a phantom for studying radiation exposure to the
human abdomen. An abdominal phantom for image quality
studies has not been found in the literature. Direct comparison
of the CDRH phantom performance with clinical abdominal
images has not been reported previously. This study applied
the phantom to conventional radiography imaging of the
abdomen to establish its patient equivalence and therefore its
applicability in quality control studies in radiology
departments. Results show a difference in beam transmission
(BT) of 21.2% (r = 0.3; p>0.05) and an optical density (OD)
of 1.62 against 1.65 for patient abdominal films (p=0.54).
Despite the variations and a poor linearity with patient data,
the phantom satisfied Optical density requirements, is
portable, adjustable, and simple to assemble. It can therefore
find application in image quality studies in diagnostic
radiology.