Comparison of traditional methods and digital technics in the study of the biliary and pancreatic systems using endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP)

ERCP holds a key role in the diagnosis of pancreatic-biliary disease. In this technical paper the authors report their experience with computed radiography (CR) in ERCP diagnostic imaging. A stimulable phosphor system was employed (Toshiba TCR-201). Fifteen pancreatic-biliary patients were studied with both conventional and CR techniques. With the same diagnostic output and radiological system, CR was superior to conventional technique in: dramatic exposure-time reduction, image post-processing (exposure error amendment, contrast change, spatial filtering, zooming, gray-scale inversion, etc.), patient exposure reduction, and digital archiving.