Comparing Anthropometric and Quality Assurance Phantoms in Quantitative Image Quality Testing for CBCT Imaging

Aim: This study aims to imaging an anthropometric phantom and a quality assurance (QA) phantom with cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) in three different dose protocols and to compare the quantitative image quality test values calculated with the anthropometric phantom with the QA phantom results in selected slices. Thus, it is aimed to produce information regarding the validity of image quality tests performed with anthropometric phantom slices. Materials and Method: Alderson-Rando® phantom (Radiology Support Devices, Long Beach, CA) and QA phantom (QR Verona, Italy) were imaged with a MyRay Hyperion X9 Pro (Cefla, Imola, Italy) KIBT device. The field of view was chosen as 13x10 cm and three different imaging modes (Low Dose, Normal, High Quality) were implemented while keeping other parameters constant. Three slices were selected from the anthropometric phantom volumes (paranasal sinus, maxilla, mandible) and one slice from the QA phantom. A total of 12 image samples were imported into ImageJ software for signal-to-noise ratio and contrast-to-noise ratio calculations. Differences between three or more variables (Low Dose, Normal, High Quality, or paranasal sinus, maxilla, mandible and QA phantom slices) were evaluated by Kruskal-Wallis test, while the relationship between pairs of variables was analyzed by Spearman and Kendall’s rank correlation coefficient. The statistical significance threshold was set as p