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

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