Comparative Study Between Digital Tomosynthesis and Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography for the Evaluation of Common Bile Duct Stones: Focus on Detection and Stone Conspicuity

Digital tomosynthesis generates slice images using conventional X-ray and offers several advantages over conventional projection radiography. For example, tomographic imaging allows for the determination of depth and improves the conspicuity of structures by removing the visual untidiness associated with the overlying anatomy. It also provides better contrast of local structures by limiting the overall image dynamic range to that of a single slice (1-3). Earlier conventional geometric tomography found limited use of this method because of image blurring, excessive radiation dose, and a long image-acquisition time. However, digital tomosynthesis overcomes these limitations by enabling the reconstruction of the numerous slices obtained from the patient based on the low-dose acquisition of data from a single imaging session (1, 4). Tomosynthesis also allows for an arbitrary number of in-focus planes to be generated retrospectively from a sequence of projection radiographs acquired during a single motion of the X-ray tube. By adding and shifting these projection radioOriginal Article