May 25, 2018 — Konica Minolta Healthcare Americas Inc. announced that two clinical studies utilizing the company’s Dynamic Digital Radiography (DDR) X-ray technology were presented at the American Thoracic Society (ATS) 2018 Annual Meeting, May 18-23 in San Diego. Dynamic Digital Radiography, currently under development, is a new modality that utilizes conventional X-ray images and Konica Minolta's proprietary software platform to create X-ray in Motion.
X-ray in Motion of the chest provides a visual display of the dynamic interactions of lung, muscle, bone, heart and nerve, not captured by either a conventional static X-ray or the common pulmonary function test (PFT). This allows clinicians to visualize and quantify physiological changes in anatomical structures during the complete respiratory cycle. Previously, respiration could only be radiologically assessed using fluoroscopy, which involves higher levels of radiation exposure. X-ray in Motion may better enable clinicians to evaluate chest and lung function in patients with pulmonary diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma and lung cancer.
At the ATS meeting, the study, A New Technology: The Dynamic Image of a Forced Breath Compared to a Tidal Breath Uncovers a Physiological Phenomenon in COPD, was presented, demonstrating a correlation to the severity of COPD and diaphragm excursion during forced and tidal breathing using DDR. The research concluded that DDR may be a clinically relevant option to assess COPD severity in the acute setting and for patients unable to perform PFTs. This study was conducted by the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Department of Medicine, and Department of Radiology from Mount Sinai, New York, N.Y.
The research study, Evaluation of Pulmonary Function Using Dynamic Chest Radiographs: The Change Rate in Lung Area Due to Respiratory Motion Reflects Air Trapping in COPD, was also presented. The researchers investigated DDR as an alternative for the evaluation of pulmonary function in COPD patients by examining the change rate in lung area due to respiratory motion in patients with COPD and in subjects with normal pulmonary function. The study found that DDR is a viable alternative indicator for air trapping in COPD. Air trapping is the abnormal retention of air in the lungs making it difficult to exhale completely. This study was performed by the Departments of Respiratory Medicine, Thoracic, Cardiovascular and General Surgery, and College of Medical, Pharmaceutical & Health Sciences at Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan.
Dynamic Digital Radiography represents ongoing research and development at Konica Minolta. It is not cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for commercial distribution or available for sale in the United States.
For more information: www.konicaminolta.com/medicalusa
September 04, 2026 
