Automatic digital contrast enhancement of radiotherapy films

The practice of radiotherapy involves the precise geometric localization of both anatomic and non-anatomic structures using radiographs which are typically of very low contrast. Portal and verification films suffer from poor contrast as a result of the dominance of Compton interactions at therapeutic energies, and implant localization films often are degraded by extreme patient thickness (lateral pelvis) or projection of bony structures (head and neck). Automatic contrast enhancement techniques developed and proven for optimization of the display of digitally produced images such as CT have been applied to radiotherapy films to improve contrast and augment readability. This approach has become viable only recently with the advent of high speed, high resolution film digitizers and laser cameras and the evolution of sufficiently powerful computer hardware.