Effect of radiologist supervision on technician performance and image quality in radiography of middle face trauma.

ABSTRACT

Image quality in radiography of middle face trauma was compared within and outside office hours on the basis of the visibility of diagnostically important structures, and an evaluation of the major patient- and technician-related factors influencing image quality. Image quality was statistically significantly better within than outside office hours. This was due to the technician-related factors of patient positioning, X-ray beam limiting and centering. Since the analysis of variance revealed that alcohol intoxication (three times more common outside than within office hours) had no statistically significant effect on image quality, the difference must have been due to the only remaining variable--radiologist supervision, which was present only within office hours.