[Digital and analog radiographic techniques in the case of thoracic diagnosis]

Up to now digital luminescens radiography has not been used widely in veterinary medicine. This paper gives an overview of the first experiences with the application of the digital ADC-System (Agfa Diagnostic Center) for imaging pulmonary nodules and other lung diseases in dogs in comparison to the conventional method. For this, we used radiographs of dogs of several weight groups with lung diseases. To compare both systems (conventional and digital) we took pictures with either method in the same positioning. Compared to the analog film screen system, the phosphor storage radiographs enhance the detection of fine details. Additionally, the digital technology gives an opportunity for post-processing of image data in order to optimize the discrimination of various image details and offers a wide latitude for exposure, which means less retakes and a wider range for dose selection. The advantage of digital filing stations is on the one hand the possibility of space saving and storage unlimited by time, on the other hand it offers the possibility to recover X ray pictures in very short time.