Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jan 14, 2022; 10(2): 437-447
Published online Jan 14, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i2.437
Analysis of photostimulable phosphor image plate artifacts and their prevalence
Sara Mohamed Elkhateeb, Ashwag Yagoub Aloyouny, Mohamed Mohamed Saeed Omer, Soad Mahmoud Mansour
Sara Mohamed Elkhateeb, Ashwag Yagoub Aloyouny, Soad Mahmoud Mansour, Department of Basic Dental Science, College of Dentistry, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia
Mohamed Mohamed Saeed Omer, College of Dentistry, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia
Author contributions: Elkhateeb S designed and performed the research, reviewed the literature, contributed to the analysis, wrote and revised the manuscript; Mansour S performed the research, wrote and revised the manuscript; Aloyouny A provided clinical advice and revised the manuscript; Omer M contributed to data collection.
Supported by the Deanship of Scientific Research, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, through the Program of Research Project Funding After publication, No. 41-PRFA-P-16.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University.
Informed consent statement: Clinical data were collected anonymously. Moreover, participants were not required to obtain informed consent to this study because all patients agreed to treatment, sharing clinical data, and participation in research by written consent at the very first visit at College of Dentistry, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman university.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: Dataset is available from the corresponding author at ayaloyouny@pnu.edu.sa. Participants gave informed consent for data sharing.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ashwag Yagoub Aloyouny, DDS, Doctor, Department of Basic Dental Science, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, King Khalid International Airport Road, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia. ayaloyouny@pnu.edu.sa
Received: June 14, 2021
Peer-review started: June 14, 2021
First decision: October 18, 2021
Revised: October 25, 2021
Accepted: December 10, 2021
Article in press: December 10, 2021
Published online: January 14, 2022
Processing time: 211 Days and 4.7 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Digital radiography has recently been used in dentistry as a substitute for conventional film radiography worldwide. Digital imaging has many advantages and provides new possibilities for recording and interpreting radiographic data. This system uses different types of digital receptors.

AIM

To detect the frequency, type, and reasons behind the appearance of intraoral image artifacts acquired by photostimulable phosphor plates (PSP).

METHODS

This retrospective descriptive study was conducted in the oral and maxillofacial radiology unit of the dental clinics of the College of Dentistry, Princess Nourah University (PNU). All intraoral digital radiographs were acquired using (Gendex Expert DC., United States) an intraoral X-ray machine with 7 -mA, 65-kVP using a PSP system (Soredex DIGORA Optime imaging plate) and laser scanners (Soredex DIGORA Optime), which can house all sizes of reusable intraoral PSP sensor plates with image acquisition software (MIPACS Dental Enterprise viewer 3.2.2). A total of 50000 intraoral radiographs were retrieved from the clinical database from April 2018 to April 2020 to evaluate the reason, type, and solutions to these image artifacts.

RESULTS

Overall, 50000 intraoral digital radiographs were acquired in a two-year-period; that is, from April 2018 to April 2020. Of these, 3550 (7.1%) retakes were performed due to the presence of image artifacts. Periapical radiographs were the most common image type of intraoral retakes (80.8%). Imaging artifacts were divided into three categories: operator, plate and scanning errors. Out of 3550 retakes, 5%, 1.37%, and 0.73% were related to operator, plate, and scanning errors, respectively. The cone cut was the most common operator error (988 images), Bite marks were the most common plate error (276 images), and delayed scanning artifacts were the most common scanning errors (145 images). The calculated kappa value for interobserver reliability was 0.99, indicating almost perfect interobserver agreement.

CONCLUSION

Our study discussed intraoral image artifacts that were characteristic of PSP, where the most common artifacts were bitemarks, image size reduction, scratches, and delayed scanning.

Keywords: Photostimulable phosphor image; Artifacts; Intraoral radiographs; Errors; Prevalence and types

Core Tip: Digital radiography has been used widely in dentistry as a substitute to conventional film radiography. Digital radiography holds many advantages and provides a wide range of possibilities to interpret and archive radiographic images. The latter system uses different types of digital receptors, and as any recent technology, different types of image pitfalls are expected. Therefore, these pitfalls render improper diagnosis for the radiographic images. The appearance of intraoral radiographic image artifacts can be produced by using the reusable intraoral photostimulable phosphor sensor plates. Thus, recognizing these errors and defining the causes and their trouble-shooting are crucial factors in making images possess great clinical impacts.