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The revolution in digital radiology: Why is this technology making medical imaging faster and safer?
With the rapid development of medical technology, digital radiology has gradually become the mainstream technology for imaging examinations, replacing traditional X-ray film. This revolutionary change enables faster and more efficient acquisition of medical images and provides a safe diagnostic environment. This article will take an in-depth look at how digital radiology works, its advantages, and its applications in various industries.
Basics of digital radiology
Digital radiology uses X-ray-sensitive plates to directly capture examination data, which can be immediately transferred to a computer system without the need for intermediate film processing. One of the main advantages of this approach is time efficiency, as it eliminates chemical processing steps and enables instant adjustment and enhancement of images.
In addition, digital radiology requires significantly less radiation than traditional radiology, yet produces images with similar contrast.
Types of digital detectors
In digital radiology, there are various types of detectors, the most common of which are planar detectors (FPDs). These detectors can be divided into indirect and direct types. Indirect FPD mainly uses amorphous silicon (a-Si) combined with fluorescent materials, such as magnesium iodide (CsI) or tantalum oxide (Gd2O2S), to convert X-rays into light and then into digital signals.
Direct FPD uses amorphous selenium (a-Se), which can directly convert X-ray photons into charges, making the image capture process faster and more efficient.
Other digital detection technologies
In addition to planar detectors, detectors based on CMOS and charge-coupled devices (CCD) have been developed. Although these systems are relatively low-cost, they have not been widely used due to bulky designs and poor image quality. High-density solid-state detectors use light-stimulated sodium fluoride or potassium-sodium phosphor powder to acquire and digitize X-ray energy. This process is quite complex.
Phosphor plate radiology is similar to the old analog system, but uses image plates that can transfer images to the PACS system after reading, making image processing more convenient.
Applications of digital radiology in industry
Digital radiology is also increasingly used in security inspections. Because it provides excellent image quality and high detection rates, these characteristics have enabled digital radiology to gradually replace traditional film inspection and become an important tool for safety inspection and non-destructive testing (NDT).
In fields such as aerospace and electronics, the immediate results capabilities of digital radiography technology are considered critical for the integrity testing of materials.
The history and future of digital radiology
Digital radiology has experienced decades of development, and breakthroughs in key technologies have enabled continuous progress. In the future, as technology continues to evolve, we can expect digital radiology to play an even more important role in global healthcare and industrial testing. As costs decrease and technical standards increase, digital radiology can not only improve the efficiency and accuracy of medical diagnosis, but also improve patient safety and comfort.
In this rapidly changing technological context, how do you think digital radiology will further change our lives and the medical system?
