A ROC study of AMBER and conventional chest imaging in the detection of simulated interstitial lung disease

Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare the detection of simulated interstitial lung disease with Advanced Multiple Beam Equalization Radiography (AMBER) and conventional wide latitude screen-film radiography.Materials and methods: Interstitial disease of varying severity was simulated with overlays on an anthropomorphic chest phantom. A total of 60 images per modality was used in a Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) study.Results: AMBER performed significantly better than conventional radiography for all readers (P < 0.02). The difference was even more significant for the radiologist readers (P = 0.001). In each case the difference in ROC areas was between 5% and 9%.Conclusion: AMBER is superior to conventional wide latitude screen-film imaging in detecting the subtle patterns used to simulate interstitial lung disease.