Les réseaux d'images

Abstract

The silver film remained a long time the only support of the images obtained by x-rays. Its functions are multiple. Not only it fixes the radiological images but also it makes it possible to interpret them, to diffuse them and to file them. Nevertheless, the development and the progressive digitalisation of radiological technologies since the Eighties, made it possible to consider the data-processing supports as an alternative increasingly tempting to film, initially in its function of interpretation (the analysis of the image can be done on screen) then in its filling and communication functions. The installation of picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) constitutes the result of this thought. However the first networks of images knew difficult beginnings. Their cost was increased and their data-processing capacity were limited. The insufficient maturity of the hospitals and their weak clinical use at the time, led to failures or a limited diffusion of these systems. Despite everything, this concept of communication remains of topicality even more, with the increasing power of the information processing systems at lower cost and the development of communication tools. The generalization of internet illustrates it. The desire to put in network all the radiological devices to communicate radiological information on display consoles, to create an electronic archive of the patient file, remains intact, in spite of its 20 years. This past time shows the difficulties of the installation of this concept in a field in perpetual evolution as well on the level of the hardware as the software. The objective of this article is to allow the discovery of this technological universe to be able to initiate and to follow the installation of a PACS.