State-of-the-art digital radiography

Technologic advances in digital radiography have improved the ways in which radiographic images are acquired, displayed, transmitted, recorded, and archived. With computed radiography, performed with storage phosphor plates and interactive high-resolution workstations, radiation dose is reduced and repeat exposures necessitated due to technical errors are eliminated. Digital fluorography allows reductions in dose, procedure time, and film costs. These digital imaging modalities have been well accepted clinically and are equal in diagnostic accuracy to conventional methods. Teleradiology has advanced with the development of laser film digitization, fiberoptic networks, and dial-up circuit switching technology. Laser film printers yield improved hard copies of transmitted images, but further work is needed to faithfully reproduce the images displayed on high-resolution work-stations. Although the capacity for archiving digital image data has increased (260,000 examinations or 23,500 Gbytes can be stored in a six-unit optical disc library), higher capacity storage media are needed. Further technologic advances in the speed of image transmission and storage capacity are anticipated.