[Digital luminescence radiography of premature and term infants. Possibilities and limitations]

Postmortem images of seven premature and term newborns, acquired with various conventional screen-film combinations and by a digital technique with appropriate radiation exposures, were compared. Images without and with simulated pathology were used in this study. With electronic manipulation of the computed radiographs we obtained well-balanced images with good contrast, and in many cases the artifacts were better visualized than with the conventional screen film. However, in our study no significant dose reduction for this young age group was possible with the digital technique compared with conventional screen film.