Archives for coronary angiography: a comparison of cinefilm vs. video vs. digital

Abstract

The appropriate storage and archiving of angiographic images and
data still represents a major problem in coronary angiography. Usually
one of these three physical media is used: cine film, videotape, or
digital storage. The properties of these different archive tapes are
analyzed by comparing their benefits for clinical practice. The most
important criterion for clinical diagnosis is the image quality.
Extensive studies have been performed to compare images from digital
storage, digitized cine film, VHS videotape, and worn videotape. By
using special X-ray phantoms, various image properties were measured.
The results show that digital images have the best quality in terms of
noise, sharpness, and pointspreading. Cine film has advantages in
spatial resolution, but disadvantages in contrast. The video images,
especially those from worn tape, have a dramatic loss of spatial
resolution and sharpness. Digital technology offers several progressions
like online enhancement, fast accessibility, quantitative coronary
analysis, data integration, communication, and telemedicine