Evaluation of the European image quality criteria for chest examinations

The European Commission has published guidelines for image quality, radiographic technique and patient dose. These could be easily checked by staff either during the examination or when reporting the resulting radiographs. The objective was to achieve comparable image quality throughout Europe using optimum techniques. This paper presents an application of the image criteria for chest examinations. The application of criteria to a large number of films helps to correlate scoring films using this method with other alternatives such as the evaluation of physical parameters using phantoms or test objects. The advantages and limitations of the image quality list of criteria are discussed. As a result of its application, some modifications of image quality criteria, based upon simple essential indicators (minimizing the number of criteria) are formulated and presented.