[Data processing in clinical nuclear medicine (author's transl)].

Since the introduction of data processing into clinical nuclear medicine, significant advances could be achieved above all through the development of quantitative gamma camera scintigraphy, which is nowadays one of the most important fields of computer application. The technological properties of an adequate computer system for nuclear medicine use are dependent on a scale on the necessities of gamma camera sequential scintigraphy. If the computer capacity to carry out fast sequential scintigraphy is available, the system can be used for all modern scintigraphic procedures as well as for other tasks. If we look back on the experience gathered in more than ten years, the following areas can be named in which the use of computers appears worthwile and desirable: 1. scintigraphic diagnostics 2. functional diagnostics 3. medical record printout 4. operational management of the department, documentation and retrieval of the patients data 5. planning of therapy. Because of the importance of quantitative sequential scintigraphy, in many nuclear medicine departments two or more gamma camera computer systems are used. For reasons of costs, however, it will not be justifiable to connect each gamma camera with a separate effective data system. Therefore systems have been tested in which several gamma cameras are connected to a host computer via microprocessor-controlled buffer systems and by means of DMA interfaces. From practical experience, critera were worked out to draw up a computer concept for data processing in clinical nuclear medicine.