The filmless catheterization laboratory: when will it be reality?

Summary

Film techniques have been for a long time the standard in vascular and cardiac imaging. Whereas large spot films have been replaced by digital subtraction angiography in peripheral vascular radiology within the last decade, cinefilm has remained the standard in cardiac angiography until recently. With the advent of new hardware technology and fast algorithms for image acquisition and display, digital techniques have now matched the cinefilm in spatial as well as temporal resolution. Thus, cinefilm is no longer needed in the digital catheterization laboratory for proper diagnosis and decision making. The problem of long-term storage of digital images, however, has so far not been solved. There is no digital archival medium or system available that provides sufficient durability, data quality, that is cost effective and allows easy handling of the medium. Thus, the cinefilm is assumed to remain in function as a back-up and exchange medium for some time, and the totally filmless catheterization laboratory will probably not be a widespread reality within the very next future.