[Coronet status of digital radiography in chest medicine]

It has been ten years since Computed Radiography (CR) was introduced to evaluate its efficacy on the diagnosis of chest diseases in Japan. Over 600 CR systems are in their daily clinical use. CR images improve the quality of chest X-ray diagnosis with its enhancement parameters, that is, the digital image's contrast and edge enhancement. In daily clinical work, however, some abnormalities on the images, such as infiltrative shadows and fine miliary shadows, have shown CR imaging to have no superiority in visualization compared to conventional X-ray films. The quality of CR images greatly depends on the reconstruction algorithm. The diagnostic system of CR images using CRT monitor and workstations will be warranted in order to make the CR system the optimal and most useful modality in chest medicine. The CR system is potentially applicable in Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS).