A study of reduction of patient's radiation exposure by using the new ortho screen film systems (4). A study of the possibility of higher developing temperature by observation of chest phantom radiographs

Recently, some new ortho screen-film systems (Konica EX system, Fuji AD system and Kodak IEF system) are being developed. The granulalities of these systems have been greatly improved and gross fogs are lower than those of traditional ortho screen-film systems. Even if the radiographs with the new ortho screen-film are processed at higher temperature than with the old ortho system such as Lanex Medium/TMC-RA (Eastman Kodak), the deterioration in the image quality is negligible. Furthermore, the speed of the screen-film systems increases as the developing temperature rises. Therefore, there may be the potential to reduce patients' radiation exposure without greatly decreasing the image quality. At that time, the problem arises how to determine the appropriate developing temperature. The limit of developing temperature for the new ortho system was determined as the temperature for getting the same gross fog in old ortho-system. In this report, phantom radiographs were made at various developing temperatures and the comments about the higher limit of the developing temperature were solicited from medical doctors who evaluated them. Consequently, it has been confirmed there are sufficient image quality in the radiographs which were developed at the higher developing temperature than at the temperature used in many faculties now. (author)