Intravertebral pneumatocysts of the cervical spine.

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of intravertebral pneumatocyst (IVP) of the cervical spine by age group, compared with that of intradiscal vacuum (IDV). METHODS: We investigated 500 consecutive patients who underwent cervical computed tomography (CT) from May 2012 to May 2013 for various indications. CT datasets were assessed for the presence of IVPs and IDVs with stratification by age. RESULTS: IVPs of the cervical spine were detected in 8 % (7 of 86 subjects) of patients in their forties or below, 30 % (23 of 75) in their fifties, 49 % (67 of 136) in their sixties, 55 % (76 of 137) in their seventies, and 60 % (40 of 66) in their eighties or over. IDVs of the cervical spine were detected in 6, 25, 48, 54, and 57 %, respectively. Coexistence of both phenomena was identified in 4, 17, 33, 40, and 43 %, respectively. CONCLUSION: IVPs of the cervical spine are a common incidental finding, increasing in prevalence with age and more common than IDV in all age groups.

Psychophysical evaluation of calibration curve for diagnostic LCD monitor.

PURPOSE: In 1998, Digital Imaging Communications in Medicine (DICOM) proposed a calibration tool, the grayscale standard display function (GSDF), to obtain output consistency of radiographs. To our knowledge, there have been no previous reports of investigating the relation between perceptual linearity and detectability on a calibration curve. MATERIALS AND METHODS: To determine a suitable calibration curve for diagnostic liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors, the GSDF and Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE) curves were compared using psychophysical gradient delta and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis for clinical images. RESULTS: We succeeded in expressing visually recognized contrast directly using delta instead of the just noticeable difference (JND) index of the DICOM standard. As a result, we found that the visually recognized contrast at low luminance areas on the LCD monitor calibrated by the CIE curve is higher than that calibrated by the GSDF curve. On the ROC analysis, there was no significant difference in tumor detectability between GSDF and CIE curves for clinical thoracic images. However, the area parameter Az of the CIE curve is superior to that of the GSDF curve. The detectability of tumor shadows in the thoracic region on clinical images using the CIE curve was superior to that using the GSDF curve owing to the high absolute value of delta in the low luminance range. CONCLUSION: We conclude that the CIE curve is the most suitable tool for calibrating diagnostic LCD monitors, rather than the GSDF curve.