To evaluate the clinical usefulness of the Ultra-Vision (U-V) system, its fundamental imaging properties were compared with those of conventional blue (BH III/RX) and green (HR4/HRS, HR8/HRS) screen-film systems. The basic imaging properties were evaluated by measuring characteristic curves, relative speeds, resolution properties (square wave response functions), and noise WS (Wiener spectra). The clarity of details of various parts of clinical radiographs obtained with the U-V and conventional blue (BH III/RX) systems were compared subjectively. Six board-certified radiologists and 7 radiological technicians independently reviewed the radiographic contrast, resolution, noise, and overall image quality of the two examinations. The resolution of the U-V system was signifcantly better than that of the conventional system, however, noise was greater with the U-V system. The overall image quality of bone radiographs obtained with the U-V system was superior to that of radiographs obtained with a conventional HR4/HRS system. However, cases of inferior quality were found in chorecystography and pyelography because of the increased noise of the U-V system. It was concluded that the new U-V system is useful for radiographs that require high resolution, e. g. bone radiographs, but noise needs to be decreased for radiographs of other regions.
