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Cleaning of photostimulable phosphor plates with chlorhexidine-based substances does not affect image quality of
C P Borge1, I F Correia-Dantas1, D C Ruiz1
1Department of Oral Diagnosis, Piracicaba Dental School, University of Campinas, Piracicaba 13414-903, SP, Brazil.
Objectives:
To evaluate image quality of radiographs obtained with photostimulable phosphor (PSP) plates after cleaning with 2% chlorhexidine.
Methods:
Eight PSP plates were used: 4 from Express system and 4 from VistaScan system. Two plates from each system were wiped with 2% chlorhexidine in aqueous solution (CHX AQ), and the other 2 plates from each system with 2% chlorhexidine in alcoholic solution (CHX AL). Before cleaning and after every 5 cleaning cycles (up to 100 cleanings), 2 radiographs of an acrylic block and 2 of an aluminium step wedge were acquired with each PSP plate. The image's gray values were measured to assess image brightness, noise, uniformity, and contrast. Two-way repeated measures ANOVA followed by Sidak's post hoc test analysed the influence of the number of cleanings and substance type on these parameters (α = 0.05).
Results:
Considering the number of cleanings, image brightness varied for CHX AL in the Express system and CHX AQ in the VistaScan system, with no consistent pattern (P < .05). Noise varied for both substances in the VistaScan system, also without a clear pattern (P < .05). In the Express system, regarding the substance type, CHX AL resulted in lower brightness and CHX AQ in lower noise after 75 cleanings (P < .05). Contrast and uniformity were not affected by either the number of cleanings or the substance type (P > .05). Despite numerical variations in some objective parameters, overall image quality remained stable across all cleanings for both substances. No artefacts were observed in the images.
Conclusion:
Regarding image quality, 2% chlorhexidine-whether aqueous or alcohol-based-can be recommended for PSP plates cleaning.
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