Radiation image read-out method

Claim 1

A radiation image read-out method in which, prior to final read-out for exposing a stimulable phosphor sheet carrying a radiation image of an object stored therein to stimulating rays which cause the stimulable phosphor sheet to emit light in proportion to the stored radiation energy, detecting the emitted light by use of a photoelectric read-out means to obtain an electric image signal for reproducing a visible image, preliminary read-out is conducted by use of stimulating rays of a level lower than the level of stimulating rays used in the final read-out, read-out conditions in the final read/out and or/image processing conditions are adjusted on the basis of image input information on the stimulable phosphor sheet obtained by the preliminary read-out, and the final read-out is conducted by use of the adjusted conditions, wherein the improvement comprises the steps of: (i) when the image read-out is conducted for a plurality of the stimulable phosphor sheets carrying a radiation image of the same object recorded thereon by combination image recording, conducting said preliminary read-out and said final read-out only for the first stimulable phosphor sheet which is first subjected to the image read-out, and (ii) conducting only said final read-out for the other stimulable phosphor sheets by use of conditions which are obtained by adjusting the read-out conditions and/or image processing conditions in accordance with the image input information obtained by said preliminary read-out of said first stimulable phosphor sheet, and in accordance with a difference in the image input information between said first stimulable phosphor sheet and each of said other stimulable phosphor sheets