Effect of Color Temperature on Color Scale Test Patterns in Medical Liquid-crystal Display Monitor

Abstract

In Japan, medical liquid-crystal display (LCD) and general LCD monitors have color temperatures of 7500 and 6500 K, respectively. The differences in color temperature make it difficult for radiologists to judge whether the same color is being displayed on the monitor. Therefore, the radiologist may overlook lesions. We examined chromaticity on a color scale test pattern to determine the relationships between color temperature (6500-12,500 K) of the medical color LCD monitors, there are three types of fluorescent light and three types of illuminance LCD monitors. As the color temperature of the monitor increased, the variation in chromaticity for grayscale test patterns increased and those variations for the blue scale test patterns decreased in a dark room and at 600 lux. In addition, even if the color temperature of the monitor was changed, the variation in chromaticity showed no change under fluorescent lighting with light bulb color and daylight color. The results of this study will be useful for quality control and quality assurance of medical LCD monitors in terms of illuminance and color temperature of the monitor.