Evaluation of Radiographers’ Practices with Paediatric Digital Radiography Based on PACS’ Data

Objective: The purpose of the study is to evaluate radiographer practice with advanced digital radiography in terms of the values of exposure indices and deviation indices between hospitals in Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: The study is based on PACS’ data of paediatric radiographic images limited to the chest and abdomen performed during the last year from four hospitals in Saudi Arabia. P-value was calculated to investigate any significant differences exist between the values of exposure indices and deviation indices of the images, which will be acquired from the DICOM file of image data.Results: Most of the paediatric radiographic images (54%) were underexposed, as these images had deviation index with less than -1 from four hospitals compared to expected results. However, in one hospital, 58% of the images were overexposed. The majority of the underexposed paediatric radiographic images were chest and abdomen radiographic exam (50% and 66% separately). Results also show that most of the underexposed radiographic images were using a grid (66%); on the other hand, in the overexposed radiographic images, 59% did not use the grid.Conclusions: The findings of the study show the need for radiographers for further knowledge and training courses to improve their performance in digital radiography and paediatric imaging.

Analysis of DICOM Image Compression Alternative Using Huffman Coding

Compression, in general, aims to reduce file size, with or without decreasing data quality of the original file. Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine (DICOM) is a medical imaging file standard used to store multiple information such as patient data, imaging procedures, and the image itself. With the rising usage of medical imaging in clinical diagnosis, there is a need for a fast and secure method to share large number of medical images between healthcare practitioners, and compression has always been an option. This work analyses the Huffman coding compression method, one of the lossless compression techniques, as an alternative method to compress a DICOM file in open PACS settings. The idea of the Huffman coding compression method is to provide codeword with less number of bits for the symbol that has a higher value of byte frequency distribution. Experiments using different type of DICOM images are conducted, and the analysis on the performances in terms of compression ratio and compression/decompression time, as well as security, is provided. The experimental results showed that the Huffman coding technique has the capability to compress the DICOM file up to 1 : 3.7010 ratio and up to 72.98% space savings.

OPTIMASI CITRA DICOM DENGAN MENGGUNAKAN APLIKASI PADA SMARTPHONE ANDROID

<p class="AbstractEnglish"><strong>Abstract:</strong> A radiographic image is generated from a mapping of attenuation of the X-ray beam that passed through a material. Over the past few years, as computer acquisition technology has grown, conventional diagnostic medical imaging modalities have increasingly been replaced by digital imagery. Computed radiography (CR) is one of radiographic image acquisition using computers. CR images could be either .jpg files or DICOM files. We exposed some wrenches which diameter of 5.68 mm; 3.99 mm and 3.2 mm as well as a bottle and a circular cork. We use Siemens mobile x-ray to expose the objects and DroidRender 3D DICOM Viewer as the DICOM viewer. We got two images which are .jpg file and DICOM file respectively. We adjust WW and WL parameters in order to optimize the image of the DICOM file. The results are WW = 2833 and WC = 2170.</p><p class="KeywordsEngish"><strong>Abstrak:</strong> Citra medis yang dihasilkan oleh sistem radiografi pada dasarnya adalah pemetaan dari berkas sinar-X yang diteruskan yang dinyatakan melalui hukum penurunan intensitas sinar-X. Selama beberapa tahun terakhir, dengan semakin berkembangnya teknologi akuisisi komputer, modalitas pencitraan medis diagnostik konvensional semakin digantikan oleh citra digital. <em>Computed radiography </em>(CR) merupakan salah satu teknologi akuisisi komputer pengolah citra radiografi. Hasil citra radiografi pada CR dapat berbentuk file .jpg ataupun DICOM. Untuk membaca file DICOM harus digunakan DICOM <em>viewer </em>yang dapat diunduh secara gratis dari internet. Pada penelitian ini, obyek-obyek yang dipapari sinar-X yaitu kunci inggris dengan tebal diameter 5,68 mm; 3,99 mm dan 3,2 mm serta botol dan gabus berbentuk lingkaran. Pesawat sinar-X yang digunakan adalah <em>mobile x-ray</em> bermerk Siemens. Aplikasi DICOM <em>viewer </em>yang digunakan adalah DroidRender 3D DICOM Viewer. Dari hasil eksperimen, pengaturan WW dan WC pada aplikasi untuk dapat menampilkan gabus secara optimal diperoleh pada nilai WW = 2833 dan WC = 2170.</p>