[Digital echocardiography laboratory]. / L'acquisizione e la gestione delle immagini nel laboratorio digitale di ecocardiografia.

The implementation of a digital echocardiography laboratory exists today using the DICOM (Digital Imaging Communication in Medicine) standard to acquire, store and transfer echocardiographic digital images. The components of a laboratory include: 1) digital echocardiography machines with DICOM output, 2) a switched high-speed local area network, 3) a DICOM server with abundant local storage, and 4) a software to manage image and measurement information. The aim of this article was to describe the critical components of a digital echocardiography laboratory, discuss strategies for implementation, and describe some of the pitfalls that we encountered in our own implementation of the digital third level echocardiography laboratory.