Health Imaging & IT - November 2008 - (Page 82)

maNagiNg teCHNologY By Jonathan Batchelor LCD Monitors Sharpen The tools for mammography and its interpretation have undergone a Renaissance over the past couple decades. Film-screen mammography and the classic light-box alternator diagnostic paradigm are rapidly giving way to full-field digital mammography (FFDM) acquisition with DR and CR technology and soft-copy interpretation, either on cathode ray tube or ﬂat-panel liquid crystal displays (LCDs). [ The prototype StereoMirror SD2250 stereoscopic display allows for the 3D visualization of full-field digital mammography images. Image courtesy of BBN Technologies. ] The introduction of LCD panel displays in the commercial off-the-shelf computer space has thoroughly supplanted CRT-based monitors for the consumer market. The filmless reading room in radiology also has seen a surge in deployment, in part due to the reduced footprint, easier quality assurance, and longer lifetime of LCD monitor technology. Flat-panel displays have made great strides in the medical marketplace since their introduction. A combination of liquid-crystal processes tuned for medical applications, greater noise reduction as well as more uniform, stable and powerful backlit illumination have eliminated many of the previous drawbacks of LCDs. In 2005, Elizabeth Krupinski, PhD, from University Medical Center in Tucson, Ariz., noted that care should be taken when viewing radiographic images off axis on LCD displays. “Residents and other clinicians who tend to find themselves seated next to or looking over the shoulder of the radiologist seated in front of the display need to be aware of the fact that the LCD display distorts luminance, gray levels and contrast and that these distortions can lead to degradations in performance especially for low-contrast lesions,” she wrote in the Proceedings of SPIE (Vol. 5749). In the intervening years, LCD panel manufacturers have addressed this issue through the utilization of in-plane switching, which maintains high contrast over a much larger viewing angle—of particular importance in dual- and quad-monitor configurations commonly deployed for radiological reading environments. The physical characteristics and quality of display are of great import for any diagnostic imaging interpretation, and particularly so in digital mammography. Luminance, contrast, resolution, sharpness, and uniformity across the display are critical for diagnostic-quality digital mammography display. High spatial requirements necessary to display subtle gradations in shading, and the very small details within that shading, have made this sub-specialty among the last to migrate from CRT to LCD monitors. HealthImaging.com 82 Health Imaging & IT | November 2008 http://www.HealthImaging.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Health Imaging & IT - November 2008

Health Imaging & IT - November 2008 Table of Contents On the Web The Enterprise News Update RIS/PACS Speech PACS Peripherals Advanced Visualization CT DR & CR CAD Molecular Imaging MRI Ultrasound Healthcare IT Furniture reading Services Cardiac Imaging Data Storage & Archiving Displays Oncology Imaging 3T MRI Flexing its Muscle Breast Imaging Workflow: Optimum Efficiency & Beyond Enterprise Long-term Storage: Plan for the Worst, Hope for the Best LCD Monitors Sharpen Soft-copy Mammography Defining Lung CAD’s Role Digital Endoscopy: Challenges for Enterprise Imaging Reader's Resource On the Frontline: CT in the ED

Health Imaging & IT - November 2008

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