Quantitative coronary arteriography: current status and future.

Quantitative coronary arteriography (QCA) has been accepted as a means for the objective assessment of vessel sizing. Gradient field transform (GFT) is now available as a third generation QCA approach for the quantification of complex morphology. In the meantime the DICOM-3 (DICOM: Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) standard has been accepted for the exchange of digital data acquired in a catheterization laboratory. Issues to be resolved in digital imaging include the basic question of whether the commonly used matrix size of 512 x 512 pixels and 8 bits of density resolution is really sufficient to appreciate the same fine details as are visible on cinefilm. Other major issues of differences between the conventional cinefilm and the modern digital approach are edge enhancement and image compression. We believe that digital imaging and the DICOM-3 standard are here to stay; although the transition period may take longer and be hampered in practice by more hurdles than were originally anticipated, in a few years' time, 35-mm film will be an exception.