Application of computer picture archiving and communicating system (PACS) to stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS)

PACS using personal computers has been applied to a rapidly growing technology, stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), which is precise high dose irradiation. Brain AVMs and tumors were treated with SRS. Using DSA, CT and MRI, the center of the lesion must be determined with the accuracy of 1 mm in a short time. We developed a program to determine the center of AVMs for SRS with Visual Basic on MS-Windows. This program has been successfully installed in personal computer image display terminal (PC-IDT) of PACS subsystem. We compare the time required to calculate the coordinates among three methods,-hand-calculation method, digitizer method and PACS method. Hand-calculation method required about 29 minutes. Digitizer method required about 10 minutes. PACS method required about 4 minutes. The difference was statistically significant (p<0.001) Accuracy of coordinates was identical among the three method. The time required for developing the program was as short as three weeks. PACS subsystem was useful to give the easy access to image information for end users. It is useful in the application of PACS for the rapidly developing fields of modern medicine.