Optimizing photon fluence measurements for the accurate determination of detective quantum efficiency

Our goal was to evaluate the error contributed by photon fluence measurements to the detective quantum efficiency (DQE) of an x-ray imaging system. The investigation consisted of separate error analyses for the exposure and spectrum measurements that determine the photon fluence. Methods were developed for each to determine the number of measurements required to achieve an acceptable error. A new method for calculating the magnification factor in the exposure measurements was presented and compared to the existing method. The new method not only produces much lower error at small source-to-image distances (SIDs) such as clinical systems, but is also independent of SID. The exposure and spectra results were combined to determine the photon fluence error contribution to the DQE of 4%. The error in this study is small because the measurements resulted from precisely controlled experimental procedures designed to minimize the error. However, these procedures are difficult to follow in clinical environments, and application of this method on clinical systems could therefore provide important insight into error reduction. This investigation was focused on the error in the photon fluence contribution to the DQE, but the error analysis method can easily be extended to a wide range of applications.