Thomas J D, Main M L
Department of Cardiology, Cardiovascular Imaging Center, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio 44195, USA.
J Am Soc Echocardiogr. 1998 Oct;11(10):978-83. doi: 10.1016/s0894-7317(98)70141-5.
The transition to an all-digital echocardiographic laboratory has been slow despite the advantages of digital echocardiography, the dramatic improvement in computer technology, and the acceptance by all major vendors and professional organizations of the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine image-formatting standard. This review article examines some current issues in digital echocardiography, including types of digital output, disk versus network exchange, digital and clinical compression techniques, and the choice of image storage format. Although specific exceptions exist, we conclude that the optimal solution will be one based on a network exchange of formatted images that follow the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine standard, now available from several manufacturers. For a clinical interpretation, modest compression with the Joint Photography Expert Group algorithm appears acceptable, though possible enhancements to this compression standard are also discussed. We hope this review will enable the echocardiographic community to make more intelligent choices as digital storage and transmission products become available in the marketplace.
尽管数字超声心动图具有诸多优势，计算机技术有了显著进步，且所有主要供应商和专业组织都认可医学数字成像和通信（DICOM）图像格式标准，但向全数字超声心动图实验室的转变一直较为缓慢。这篇综述文章探讨了数字超声心动图当前的一些问题，包括数字输出类型、磁盘与网络交换、数字和临床压缩技术以及图像存储格式的选择。尽管存在一些特殊情况，但我们得出结论，最佳解决方案将基于遵循DICOM标准的格式化图像的网络交换，目前已有多家制造商提供此类产品。对于临床解读而言，采用联合图像专家组（JPEG）算法进行适度压缩似乎是可以接受的，不过本文也讨论了对该压缩标准可能的改进。我们希望这篇综述能使超声心动图领域在数字存储和传输产品进入市场时做出更明智的选择。
