Effect of JPEG compression on the diagnostic accuracy of periapical images in the detection of root fracture

The ability of a periapical radiograph to exhibit the fracture depends on many factors including, but not limited to, the resolution of the image. The quality can be reduced by the image compression. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) compressions on the diagnostic capability of periapical images in the detection of root fractures. Ten dry human mandibles containing 151 teeth were used in this study. Mandibles were radiographed with direct digital imaging sensor using the paralleling technique. Four observers detected root fracture on the images saved in one uncompressed and two compressed formats. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and anova analyses were performed to compare the performance of the three different systems and evaluate the effect of the compression on the accuracy of root fracture detection. Results did not show any statistically significant difference between the original, large images presented in tagged image file format (TIFF) and the two compressed images (JPEG medium file and JPEG small file images) in the detection of root fractures. The intra-rater comparison showed a significant consistency in the detection of the fracture. The compression reduced the file size considerably (from 1.77MB to 453 and 95Kb), but it did not affect the accuracy of root fracture detection. The file size reduction, on the other hand, is very beneficial for image electronic storage and mainly in teleradiology.