Despite skyrocketing growth in the use of color in radiology imaging, there is currently no consensus standard for how color information on medical images needs to be visualized on color displays, nor how medical color displays should be calibrated to ensure standardized and consistent color behavior. As reported in AuntMinnie.com this month, Barco's Tom Kimpe, PhD and VP Technology Innovation explains that "This results in a situation where there's a large variability of color appearance and makes it very hard to have a consistent image. It makes quality assurance a challenge." Dr. Kimpe spearheaded a recent study proposing an extension to the DICOM Grayscale Standard Display Function (GSDF) to solve this issue and promote higher color accuracy of medical images, presented at RSNA 2014 in December.


"The study suggests that the current way color medical images are visualized is not optimal and not consistent," Kimpe told AuntMinnie.com. "It is very important that the medical community and radiologists in particular are aware of this, since they are using color information more and more for decision-making. Also, this work is a strong encouragement for the medical community to think about, agree upon, and standardize how color medical images need to be visualized."

According to the article, at this time, state-of-the-art medical color displays are calibrated using DICOM GSDF. However, DICOM GSDF doesn't calibrate, stabilize, or alter at all the color behavior of the display. The researchers tested the color behavior of four new color displays from different vendors and found large variability in the color gamut and in the unstable color point of neutral gray.

Fortunately, there is much that can be learned from DICOM GSDF, a longtime standard that calibrates grayscale behavior not by imposing specific minimum or maximum luminance levels, but by ensuring that the display has perceptual linearization of gray levels, Kimpe said.

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