Image Stitching - One of JPI's Added Values
Over the past two decades, radiography has been transitioning to the implementation of digital technologies. While this technology was primarily used by large hospitals, it is widely being used in medical practices of different types and sizes today.
As an established imaging solutions provider, JPI Healthcare Solutions has both welcomed and participated in this transition to digital radiography. In particular, JPI’s ExamVue DR software was designed for the acquisition, processing, and viewing of digitally acquired images. ExamVue comes complete with functions most competitors charge for as “options.” One of these differentiating, added-value functions JPI’s software provides is image stitching.
What is image stitching?
In digital radiography, large and oversized images must be assembled from multiple exposures for use in diagnosis. Image stitching combines the multiple images with overlapping fields of view to produce a unified, high-resolution image.
How does the digital process differ from the traditional process?
In a traditional film-based environment, a single 14” x 36” x-ray cassette would be used to provide one exposure to capture full spine imaging. With a digital radiography system using flat detector panels, two (and in some cases, three) separate views are taken to capture the cervical-thoracic spine and thoracic-lumbar spine. Image stitching allows for these images to be displayed and viewed in a way that allows the healthcare practitioner to see the “full-spine view” to rule out or assess scoliosis conditions along with other potential findings. Image stitching can also be helpful in orthopedics such as in the instance of acquiring images of a patient’s long leg.
