Isn't it time to abandon cine film?

Cine has served our needs well since the early 1950s. For the first time, it allowed recording of motion studies of the cardiac structures on film. The cine technique has been standardized over the years, both the camera and the display. Cine filming techniques, however, have not advanced, except for new film products with faster emulsions and better-quality films. Video electronic imaging has made rapid advancements. These were prompted by the broadcast industry when the requirements for color were developed in the 1960s and by the advent of new recording techniques that provided a very stable video time base from analog tape recorders. The medical field has been able to capitalize on these developments and to produce some of our own that have not been applied in the broadcast world. These include pulsed progressive 525-line video acquisition of cardiac images in the cardiac catheterization laboratory. We also have been able to capitalize on the improved detector technology that the broadcast world has developed, such as the plumbicon pickup tubes, which produce images with very little lag and so provide images with improved resolution. These developments also have enabled us to reduce radiation to both the patient and the laboratory personnel, especially with implementation of the pulsed progressive acquisition, with which the dose has been reduced 50%. With the advent of interventional procedures in the cardiac catheterization laboratory, the need to assess images immediately cannot be fulfilled by cine filming because of the requirement for the processing of the film with its inherent delays. Quantification of cardiac structures is required to assess the outcome of interventional techniques.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)