Dark-field Chest Radiography for Pneumothorax Assessment

Zielsetzung To evaluate the potential of dark-field chest radiography in improving the detection and assessment of pneumothorax.

Material und Methoden This study included 100 participants, comprising 36 patients with clinically diagnosed pneumothorax and 64 healthy controls. All participants underwent dark-field chest radiography using a prototype system that simultaneously acquires attenuation-based and dark-field images. Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, reading time, and diagnostic confidence were compared between attenuation-based radiographs and the combination of attenuation-based radiographs with dark-field images (dark-field overlays) based on a reader study.

Ergebnisse Dark-field radiography slightly increased sensitivity for pneumothorax detection from 84.2% (attenuation-based radiographs) to 87.4% (dark-field overlays; p=.26), while specificity remained constant (97.3% vs. 97.4%). The median reading time was significantly reduced from 30.8 seconds to 10.3 seconds (p<.001), and diagnostic confidence improved significantly across all readers (p<.001; median: 3 vs. 4).

Schlussfolgerungen Dark-field chest radiography enhances the detection of pneumothorax, significantly reducing reading time and increasing diagnostic confidence without compromising specificity.

Publication History

Article published online:
25 March 2025