Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Quality of beside chest radiography is very important for lesion assessment after lung transplantation.
OBJECTIVE: To compare the quality of bedside chest radiography based on screen piece combination (TP) and computed radiography system (CR) after lung transplantation, and to select a better plan.
METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 425 TP and 411 CR bedside chest images from 78 patients after lung transplantation admitted in Wuxi People’s Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University were conducted. All the images were classified into
Ⅰ-Ⅳ levels by three high qualification physicians and technicians to analyze the influential factors related to quality of bedside chest radiographs in the two groups and calculate average exposure dosages.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: In the TP group, there were 135 (31.8%) for level Ⅰ, 171 (40.2%) for level Ⅱ, 107 (25.2%) for level Ⅲ, and 12 (2.8%) for level Ⅳ. In the CR group, there were 266 (64.7%) for level Ⅰ, 105 (25.5%) for level Ⅱ, 37 (9.0%) for level Ⅲ, and 3 (0.7%) for level Ⅳ.There was a significant difference between the two groups (P < 0.01). The average exposure dosage was 1.56 mAs in the CR group, significantly lower than that in the TP group (3.27 mAs) (P < 0.01). These findings show that CR can improve the quality of bedside chest radiography, and decrease the average exposure dose.