Preliminary clinical evaluation of a high-resolution telemammography system.

Rationale And Objectives: The authors designed, assembled, tested, and clinically evaluated a high-quality, fast, and relatively inexpensive telemammography system.

Methods: The authors designed a telemammography system that uses a high-resolution film digitizer and high data compression (> or = 40:1) to send images over regular telephone lines to a high-resolution laser printer that produces images with the look and feel of the original image and can operate in a hub and spokes mode. The authors then evaluated the system's performance.

Ball-and-socket ankle joint.

The ball-and-socket ankle joint is a malformation of the ankle in which the articular surface of the talus is hemispherical in both the anteroposterior and lateral projections and has a congruent, concave tibial articular surface. Fourteen patients with this condition were identified retrospectively. Thirteen patients were thought to have the congenital type of ball-and-socket ankle joint which in many was associated with tarsal coalition, short limb, and ray fusion and deletion anomalies.