Mitsuo Ishikawa

[Report based on Fiscal 2000 Diagnostic X-ray Equipment Questionnaire Survey (conditions of X-ray units and similar equipment)].

On X-ray diagnostic technology, it is important to grasp a change of the X-ray high-voltage equipment and radiographic technique factors. The 1st questionnaire was performed in 1974, and it carried out after that every five years, and conducted 8th investigation. As a result, we requested 656 institutions and got a reply from 103 institutions. The response rate was 15.7%. For X-ray high-voltage equipment, the inverter-type device shifts to 83.6% from 73.4% of last time. X-ray high-voltage equipment will be shifted to inverter-type device the near future. For X-ray tube device, the target angle becomes more smaller than usual, and maximum anode heat content is increasing tendency. The spread of digital devices is being advanced, and especially the flat panel detector (FPD) increases in the devices. The spread of soft copy diagnoses is 73.8% for chest image diagnoses, and 49.5% for breast image diagnosis. For the device management, the ratio of institutions measured at purchase time was 91.2%. But, the ratio of institutions performed an invariability examination was 58.4%. It is required to grasp the performance of an X-ray equipment and peripheral equipment, and to perform accuracy control in order to obtain proper radiographic technique factors and imaging. In order to use it for the improvement in photography technology, we would like to continue to conduct this investigation periodically.