Agfa HealthCare’s Next Generation of MUSICA Shows Significant Improvement in Projection Radiography Imaging

Validation results of Agfa HealthCare’s (Mortsel, Belgium) MUSICA (Multi-Scale Image Contrast Amplification) next generation image processing software were made available at this year’s ECR meeting, accompanying the launch of the product in Europe.

Dirk Van Haute is Applications Specialist at Agfa HealthCare. He conducted the validation study of MUSICA among radiologists in Europe. The results showed a major preference for the next generation of MUSICA. “There’s no doubt about this, across different countries, centers and radiologists.”

With respect to the European arm of the validation, Mr. Van Haute asked 12 radiologists across Europe to view images from the Agfa HealthCare image bank, rate their preference between the previous and the next generation MUSICA software. The scale ran from -2 to +2, with -2 representing a strong preference for the previous version and +2 a strong preference for the new image processing.

For skeletal images, radiologists rated the new equipment highly at 1.5 on the -2 to +2 scale. Chest processing also showed a preference in favor of the next generation MUSICA with a score of +1.27; for abdominal image processing the reading was between slight and strong preference with an average score of 0.94. Overall, the validation showed that 80% of images evaluated are better or much better than the previous version. This is a significant improvement on the existing version of MUSICA.

Commenting on the skeletal findings, Mr. Van Haute said, “the diagnostic information was more accurate, radiologists comment that they can immediately see the information they require without the need for window leveling. Overall they have more confidence and the whole study is faster.”

Agfa HealthCare’s next generation of MUSICA was launched in Europe after being presented in the US at the Radiology Society of North America (RSNA) meeting in November last year.

John Gibbs is Global Product Manager Modality Workstations at Agfa HealthCare. He oversaw the European launch at this year’s ECR meeting. The next generation MUSICA image processing software is an integral part of Agfa HealthCare’s Computed Radiography (CR) and Direct Radiography (DR) equipment.

The technology processes raw images that arrive from the CR or DR modality before being sent to the PACS. The next generation of MUSICA has a range of advantages depending on which examination is being performed, Mr. Gibbs explained.

“For example, on a skeletal image, increased sharpness of the trabecular details is noticeable. With the next generation MUSICA image processing software, the overall homogeneity of the images is improved avoiding distracting bright areas in the images in for example cortical bone.”

Furthermore, Mr. Gibbs highlighted that consistency of image quality is evident across all applications from skeletal to abdomen to chest. “Our next generation of MUSICA is consistently in the top level of image quality which isn’t necessarily the case for competitor products which might be for imaging of one part of the anatomy and less so for others.”

Another advantage of the next generation MUSICA is its fully automated system of image processing. Other processors require tuning for specific exposure types for different parts of the anatomy and are more influenced by external factors like patient habitus and exposure technique.

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