IMAGE QUALITY CRITERIA APPLIED TO DIGITAL RADIOGRAPHY

Film-screen radiography has been replaced more and more by digital imaging methods. The aim of this development is the extension of diagnostic capabilities and the reduction of patient discomfort and side effects such as radiation dose. For digital image intensifier radiography and luminescence radiography the image quality and the dose value can be adapted to the diagnostic problem in a broad range. Capabilities of digital radiography have changed the strategy of imaging. To decrease the dose value image quality has to be chosen to be not as good as possible but as good as necessary to answer the diagnostic question. Digital image intensifier radiography, for example, allows a dose reduction to 10% in comparison with film screen for special diagnostic problems. Digital radiography increases the diagnostic information and gives, additionally, the chance to lower the dose values significantly.