AJR: DR leaves CR in the dust

Radiology technologist students at NCH Healthcare System in Naples, Fla., demonstrate how the wireless DR plate from a portable x-ray unit can be optimally positioned.

Portable DR is significantly quicker than CR, shaving an average of 26 seconds off each exam and eliminating the positioning challenges of fixed DR, according to a study published in the June issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.  

DR is beginning to replace analog x-ray systems in radiology, emergency and other departments across the country and abroad, offering physicians advantages in image quality, latitude, dose, image handling and productivity. And although studies have affirmed vendors’ claims that DR speeds up workflow, limited versatility of the systems has posed an issue for patient positioning, explained Thomas Lehnert, MD, from the department of diagnostic and interventional radiology at the Clinic of Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University in Frankfurt, and colleagues.

Following studies comparing fixed DR and CR, Lehnert and co-authors completed the first formal comparison of CR and portable DR. Two radiographers performed a total of 941 x-ray exams, 474 with CR and 467 with DR. Nine exam types with approximately 50 images for each system were taken, including extremities, the knee and the spine. The exam times did not differ significantly between the two technologists.

The average DR exam was 26 seconds quicker than CR, with DR taking significantly less time for all nine exams. CR ranged from taking 15 to 36 seconds longer than DR.

Postacquisition processing by far saved DR the greatest amount of time, averaging 24 seconds with DR and 51 seconds with CR. Exam preparation and patient positioning did not vary significantly between the two systems, although exposure time took an average of just under two seconds more with DR than CR.

“Our study data show that this CR scanning process and the associated transport of the image plate to the reader were the determining time-consuming factors that caused the largest time difference (10.15 and 13.22 seconds, respectively) between CR and portable DR,” wrote Lehnert and colleagues.

The authors highlighted the importance of their findings to providing an objective evaluation of vendors’ assertions about the relative quickness of DR.