Ralph Schaetzing

Automatic, Anatomically Selective, Artifact-Free Enhancement Of Digital Chest Radiographs

We propose a technique for automatic, anatomically selective, artifact-free enhancement of digital chest radiographs. Anatomically selective enhancement is motivated by the different enhancement requirements of the lung field and the mediastinum. A recent peak detection algorithm is applied to the image histogram to automatically determine a gray-level threshold between the lung and mediastinum fields. The gray-level threshold facilitates anatomically selective gray-scale modification and unsharp masking. Further, in an attempt to suppress possible white-band artifacts due to unsharp mask-ing at sharp edges, local-contrast adaptivity is incorporated into anatomically selective unsharp masking by designing an anatomy-sensitive emphasis parameter that varied asymmetrically with positive and negative values of the local image contrast.

Computed Radiography and Image Management Systems: Solutions for the Intensive Care Unit

Diagnostic imaging using conventional screen/film systems in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) poses clinical, technical, and operational challenges for radiographers, ICU physicians, and radiologists. For example, the difficulty of controlling exposure at the bedside can lead to image consistency problems (and, thus, to repeat exposures). Radiologists and ICU physicians wishing to consult on a patient’s images must meet where the (original) film images are. Carrying cassettes between the ICU and the film processor can be burdensome and time-consuming. In addition, the identification of patient with cassette can be prone to errors.