The role of the digital computer in pediatric cardiology

A digital computer system is described which allows the real-time processing of all physiological signals obtained during a heart catheterization procedure and which makes all relevant results and informations available immediately during the investigation. In addition, special electronic units and programs have been developed in our institution for the automated extraction of morphological criteria from biplane angiocardiograms. Thereby right and left ventricular volume, shape and contraction pattern can be quantitated and used to characterize the performance of the heart as muscle and pump in physical terms. Recently, complete digital processing of videoangiocardiograms has been achieved in a stroboscopic mode, each videofield in real time. Application of image enhancement, subtraction, integration and restoration techniques leads to a fundamentally improved angiocardiographic image quality for a given amount of injected contrast material. Based on eight years of experience with digital computer application in pediatric cardiology, computer technologies are considered likely to become the method of choice in the future.