Radiology, Vol 136, 181-185, Copyright © 1980 by Radiological Society of North America
Observer performance with computer-generated images of 201Tl-Cl myocardial perfusion
SN Wiener, MJ Flynn and J Edelstein
The effect of simple image processing on the interpretation of 201Tl-Cl
myocardial perfusion images were evaluated by ROC analysis. Polaroid images
of the cathode ray tube of an Anger camera and computer- processed
transparent images recorded in color and shades of gray were examined by
multiple observers. A total of 198 observer responses was accumulated for
each of five image formats. The observer responses were compared with
results established by coronary angiography. Better observer performance
was obtained for all computer-generated images except in the region of low
false positive values. The responses for color-scale formats were, in
general, superior to those from the gray- scale formats. No significant
improvement in observer performance resulted from the use of background
subtraction with a rescaling of the 16-level gray scale to the residual
information. When nine-point smoothing was applied to the color-scale
display format, there was a poorer observer response.
