BACKGROUND:Virtual radiographic simulation has been found educationally effective for students to practice their clinical examinations remotely or online. A free available virtual simulator-ImaSim has received particular attention for radiographic science education because of its portability, freeof charge and no constrain of location and physical facility. However, it lacks evidence to validate this virtual simulation software to faithfully reproduce radiographs comparable to that taken from a real X-ray machines to date. OBJECTIVE:To evaluate imaging quality of the virtual radiographs produced by the ImaSim. Thus, the deployment of this radiographic simulation software for teaching and experimental studying of radiography can be justified. METHODS:A real medical X-ray examination machine is employed to scan three standard QC phantoms to produce radiographs for comparing to the corresponding virtual radiographs generated by ImaSim software. The high and low range of radiographic contrast and comprehensive contrast-detail performance are considered to characterize the radiographic quality of the virtual simulation software. RESULTS:ImaSim software can generate radiographs with a contrast ranging from 30% to 0.8% and a spatial resolution as low as 0.6mm under the selected exposure setting condition. The characteristics of contrast and spatial resolution of virtual simulation generally agree with that of real medical X-ray examination machine. CONCLUSION:ImaSim software can be used to simulate a radiographic imaging process to generate radiographs with contrast and detail detectability comparable to those produced by a real X-ray imaging machine. Therefore, it can be adopted as a flexible educational tool for proof of concept and experimental design in radiography.

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验证模拟软件的射线照相质量 - ImaSim

背景：虚拟射线照相模拟已被发现对学生远程或在线练习临床检查具有教育效果。一个免费的虚拟模拟器-ImaSim因其便携性、免费性和不受地点和物理设施的限制而受到放射科学教育的特别关注。然而，它缺乏证据来验证这种虚拟模拟软件能够忠实地再现与迄今为止从真实 X 射线机拍摄的照片相当的射线照片。目的：评价ImaSim生成的虚拟X线片的成像质量。因此，部署该放射学模拟软件用于放射学教学和实验研究是合理的。方法：使用真实的医学 X 射线检查机扫描三个标准 QC 体模以生成射线照片，用于与 ImaSim 软件生成的相应虚拟射线照片进行比较。射线照相对比度的高低范围和综合对比度细节性能被认为是表征虚拟模拟软件的射线照相质量。结果：在选定的曝光设置条件下，ImaSim 软件可以生成对比度范围为 30% 至 0.8% 和空间分辨率低至 0.6mm 的射线照片。虚拟仿真的对比度和空间分辨率特点与真实医用X射线检查机基本一致。结论：ImaSim 软件可用于模拟射线照相成像过程，以生成具有与真实 X 射线成像机产生的那些相媲美的对比度和细节可检测性的射线照片。因此，它可以作为一种灵活的教育工具，用于放射学概念验证和实验设计。