title: The potential impact of digital radiography (DR) on the speciality of nuclear medicine.
abstract: Digital radiography is a reasonably economical system that helps diagnostic imaging physicians to develop increasingly less-invasive procedures, obtain maximal information at a given dose and increase the flexibility and convenience involved with diagnostic workups. The range of applications of DR has not been fully established at this time. Comparison of its properties with those of conventional nuclear medicine may suggest areas of potential application. Compared to nuclear medicine techniques, DR in general provides improved anatomical resolution, improved contrast resolution, sometimes equivalent functional information, and decreased imaging time. On the other hand, some functional nuclear medicine studies provide information not available by DR; including the gallium scan, bone scan, hepatic-biliary scan, and lung scan. Therefore, nuclear medicine procedures will be complimentary in some instances to digital radiography procedures and competitive in others. The proper roles of each modality in various clinical settings await future detailed and comprehensive efficacy studies.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003201:Computers; D004285:Dogs; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005919:Glomerular Filtration Rate; D006801:Humans; D007465:Iodohippuric Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D007668:Kidney / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism; D007672:Kidney Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism; D007700:Kinetics; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D009683:Nuclear Medicine / Q000295:instrumentation; D011859:Radiography / Q000379:methods*; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging
chemical_list: D007465:Iodohippuric Acid