Dose requirements in stereoradiography

Stereoscopic viewing of radiographic images is advantageous in reducing ambiguity due to background anatomic noise. This advantage is usually considered to be balanced by doubling the dose required for acquisition of a stereo image pair. In the case of a quantum-noise limited detector, detection theory suggests a possible decrease of the dose by half. We tested this assumption by a series of contrast-detail observer experiments, using phantom images acquired over a range of exposures. The number of visible details, the effective reduction of the dose, and the effective decrease in the threshold SNR were compared for the acquired images viewed mono- and stereoscopically. Experimental results support our hypothesis for the images acquired at lower exposures. The quantum noise is more evident in the lower exposure images, corresponding to the quantum noise limited detection case. With increasing exposure, the observed dose benefit of stereoradiography decreased, but was always positive. Potential reasons for the reduced benefit observed with higher exposures are discussed.

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