[Value of digital projection radiography with a CT apparatus for thoracic diagnosis]

In order to examine the value of the digital projection radiography (DPR) for chest diagnostics, the digital radiograms of the chest have been compared with conventional radiograms in case of 350 patients. From 469 pathological diagnoses 84.2% could be diagnosed by the conventional roentgen film technique and 93.4% by the DPR. The results show that the DPR proves to be superior in recognizing peripheral pulmonary foci of less density and mediastinal processes as against the chest radiogram. The cause for this is the high density respectively contrast resolving power of the system. Advantages may be expected by the development of CT independent units for the DPR of the chest with improved geometrical resolving power, by new image reconstruction methods, and by the dual energy subtraction.