Digital radiography

Digital radiography is based on capturing and storing the radiograph using discrete (digital) values ¹ as opposed to conventional film radiography, which uses analog (continuous) values. It removes the requirement of dark room procedures.

Terminology

The term digital radiography is often used to address only direct digital radiography and therefore exclude computed radiography (CR). There is no universal term referring to the entirety of digital techniques in radiography, which would unambiguously encompass both computed radiography and direct digital radiography ².

Technologies

• computed radiography (CR): uses photostimulable phosphor (PSP) plates in cassettes

• direct digital radiography: images are registered directly in the detector without a need for an intermediate casette

  • direct conversion: x-rays are directly registered by the flat panel detector (FPDs)

  • indirect conversion: x-rays are first converted to visible light by a scintillator and then registered by the detector

    • indirect flat panel detector (FPDs)

    • charge-coupled device (CCD) detector

    • complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) detector