CINE FILM REPLACEMENT - DIGITAL ARCHIVAL REQUIREMENTS AND REMAINING OBSTACLES

The acceptance of the Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine (D ICOM) standard and the Compact Disk-Recordable (CD-R) as the interchan ge medium have been critical developments for laboratories that need t o move forward on the cine replacement front, while at the same time r etain a means to communicate with other centers. One remaining essenti al component which has not been satisfactorily addressed is the issue of how digital image data should be archived within an institution. Ev ery laboratory must consider the diverse issues which affect the choic e of a digital archiving system. These factors include technical and e conomic issues, along with the clinical routines prevailing in their l aboratory. A complete understanding of the issues will lead to the for mulation of multiple options which may prove acceptable and will help to overcome the last obstacle which remains for the complete replaceme nt of cine film in the cardiac catheterization laboratory. (C) 1998 Wi ley-Liss, Inc.