ABSTRACT
Film sensitometry has become a valuable tool of determining the sensitometric parameters of films and film-screen performance. But in our locality, there seems to be no accurate data of sensitometric parameters of mammography films. This study compared the sensitometric parameters such as relative speed, maximum density, base plus fog density and average gradient (film contrast) of Begood and Agfa (HDR-C) mammography films.
An experimental research design was adopted and two films Begood and Agfa (HDR-C) were loaded in the same mammography screen cassette and placed in contact with each other on the imaging couch
Series of radiographic exposures were made based on time-scale sensitometry, after which both films were processed in the same automatic processor to avoid day-to-day variations in processing conditions of each film. Density of each exposed step was measured by densitometer and characteristics curves constructed for both films, while sensitometric parameters such as relative speed, average gradient and maximum density were measured after processing without exposure to radiation.
Findings here showed that Agfa (HDR-C) had a relative speed which is 1.2 times faster than Begood, while Begood had a better average gradient of 1.76 than Agfa (HDR-C) which had average gradient of 1.59. The baseplus fog density of Agfa (HDR-C) was 0.17 while Begood was 0.19, but Agfa (HDR-C) had a maximum density of 2.66 while Begood had a maximum density of 2.56. In comparison of sensitometric parameters of both mammography films with other mammography films done use such as Kodak MinR2000 and others, findings showed variations in sensitometric parameters. There was no significant difference between density and net density of Begood and Agfa (HDR-C) mammography films (P