Introduction to the operational aspects of digital fluoroscopy

A tutorial is presented on the operational aspects of digital fluoroscopy using the Georgetown University Digital Fluoroscopy Unit (GUDFU) to illustrate the principles. Both the spot-film high milliamp mode and the fluoroscopic, low milliamp mode of operation are described. The hardware and software of the system are discussed and the operation of the system is followed. The picture processing unit, TEXAC, used in the GUDFU is described together with the picture processing language called PPL. Finally, the results are given of experiments that were designed to illustrate the image manipulation capability that could be included in a digital fluoroscopy unit.