Place of digital X-ray fluorography in improving the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis,lung cancer and mediastinal pathology

The prime objective of this paper is an effort to make a comprehensive assessment of a place of current digital X-ray fluorography in the diagnosis of various diseases of the lung, primarily its tuberculosis and cancer, and abnormalities of the mediastinum. The investigation used a principle of obligatory examination of the diagnostic potentialities of film X-ray study and digital X-ray fluorographic findings. Assessment of digital X-ray fluorography showed its potentialities of identifying an abnormality just on the monitor screen and through printer (paper) image reproduction. A total of 2,500 cases from different patient groups (those registered at a dispensary or identified at screening, those with a previously verified pathology). In addition to a particularly diagnostic section, the authors state their ideas on a multiplicity of organizational and methodological problems in the introduction of digital X-ray fluorography into practical public health of Russia. By defining "a diagnostic field" of application of the method, the authors restrict it only to the diagnosis of lung and mediastinal diseases.