Introduction

• In human medical imaging digital radiography has superseded convention radiography in many hospital departments. Over the last 10 years digital systems have been installed in many veterinary hospitals, particularly in equine units.
• Film based radiography has been around for approximately 100 years, so why are things changing now? Conventional radiographs have many good points. Because they have been around for so long we are familiar with how they look, can interpret what the different opacities mean, and readily recognize film faults and errors with technique. Conventional X-ray film has an intrinsically high resolution exceeding that of many digital systems. Equipment purchase is not expensive and radiographs are relatively cheap to produce.
• However, there are also disadvantages associated with conventional film-based radiography. It may be difficult or impossible to correctly expose all areas on a radiograph. A darkroom and chemicals are required to process the radiographs and exposure problems and film faults are common. Film is also bulky to store and radiographs are easily lost and difficult to distribute. It was to overcome some of the problems associated with conventional film- based systems, particularly in large human hospitals, that digital imaging systems were developed and introduced in the early 1980s.

Advantages and disdvantages of digital systems

Exposure

Image quality

Image processing

Further Reading

Publications

Refereed papers

• Recent references from PubMed and VetMedResource.