Determination of the radiopacity of intravenous catheters by densitometry

A general procedure has been developed to quantitatively measure the radiopacity of catheters used for medical purposes. An x-ray film is taken of the test specimen (catheter) under conditions that closely simulate the environment used for taking x-ray films of patients in hospitals or clinics. The x-ray film is scanned using a scanning densitometer such as the Schoeffel SD-3000 spectrodensitometer and the optical density of the catheter image is compared to that obtained for an appropriate aluminum rod control approximately the dimension of the medical device. The basic physical phenomena and operational characteristics involved will be described, and the experimental work will be reviewed.