Teletransmission of radiographic images. Preliminary report.

A digital system for transmission of images over telephone lines using a 256 X 256 X 6 bits matrix provided for communication between a county hospital and a university hospital is presented. During a three-month period radiologic diagnostic problems encountered in 62 patients (computed tomography in 46 and conventional radiography in 16) were referred by transmitting selected images from each examination. Transmission of computed tomograms was performed without significant degradation of image quality and there was no loss of diagnostic information. Deterioration of image quality was noticed when conventional films especially those of the chest, were digitized and transmitted, though in no instance were they non-diagnostic. The consultations gave valuable information to the transmitting radiologist in approximately 50 per cent of the cases. Review by the consulted radiologists of all original films in each of the examinations 6 months later did not improve the diagnostic results. Thus, a few carefully selected images, digitized and transmitted over telephone lines, may be sufficient for adequate consultation.