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QUESTIONS. (a) briefly describe the difference th generation and a Helical CT between a 4 scanner. What are the advantages of Helical scanner over conventional scanner. (b) Concerning CT, explain the following including factors affecting them. (i) CT contrast (ii) spatial contrast Why is molybdenum usually used as

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Dr Fadahunsi, 3/5/2009

 Filter. Illustrate your answer with an appropriate xray spectra diagram. Describe the properties of screen/film combination used in mammography. ANSWER In the 4th generation CT scan the x-ray tube has to be provided with a high voltage supply and the detectors have to pass their signals to the computer, the gantry is also wired to an external equipment, because of these, at the completion of every slice after accelerating the x-ray tube to a rotational scanning speed, the system must decelerate to a gradual stop and then repeat the process by rotating in the opposite direction in order to unwind the high voltage, control, power and signal cables take up assembly.A

 In the helical scanner, a slip ring technology has been incorporated which allows gantry control and data signal to pass from and into a continuously rotating gantry. The high voltage supply used by the x-ray generator uses a compact high frequency transformer that is mounted within the rotating gantry. All power required by the gantry is passed through the slip rings thereby allowing it to rotate continuously without the need to stop after every slices.

ADVANTAGES
The basic advantage of continuous rotation is to permit faster rotation times. The continuously rotating gantry allows continuous acquisition of data, reducing the inter scan delays. It is possible to do dynamic scans at up to 12 scans per minute. A patient volume is scanned continuously without gaps and with fewer problems with patient motion particularly patient breathing and this is helpful in reformatted sagittal and coronal images. Any slice can be selected within the volume to display instead of the fixed slice position of the conventional 4th generation scan. There is reduced use of contrast medium.

 CT contrast or contrast resolution or density resolution is the ability of an imaging system to display an image of a relatively large object that is only slightly different in density from its surroundings. For the image to be visible, the object must produce enough change in the no of transmitted photons to overcome statistical fluctuation in transmitted photons caused by noise i.e. in the computation of any one pixel value there is error in the form of statistical variation and it is this variation which limits the ultimate contrast resolution and this variation is referred to as image noise which manifest itself as a grainy background or mottle.

 Since noise is the ultimate limitation in the accuracy of contrast resolution, factors that affect or induce noise affect contrast and these factors are (1) photon flux--- in any ray measurement the statistical variation associated with that measurement is directly proportional to the number of photons detected, the relative image noise is affected inversely as the square root of the detected photon flux. large photon fluxes therefore reduces relative noise although increases patient dose. The photon intensity is affected by the efficiency of the detector, photon flux, size of patient and the presence of high attenuation material and in turn the uncertainty in the measurement. A large patient thus will have a more mottled image than a small one for the same tube output. Presence of high contrast objects such as bone will cause an increase in noise by reducing the transmitted photon flux.

X-ray scatter---- Because any particular detector cannot discriminate between primary photon directly from the source and a scattered photon arising from an area not in line of the ray projection, this alters the recorded values in adjacent detectors and produces a decrease in difference between adjacent measurements with a concomitant decrease in contrast resolution. Voxel length---- if the slice thickness is reduced by 50% the detector collimator size must be reduced accordingly which in turn reduces the intensity by the same amount. To retain the same accuracy requires restoration of the detected photon intensity which means doubling the dose. Similarly decreasing pixel size increases the relative inaccuracy unless the photon flux is raised. If the pixel side length is reduced by half the voxel volume will be reduced by a factor of four, the SD of the CT value would double and the image will become more mottled in appearance and the contrast will deteriorate. Filters ------- These are used to remove image blurring created by back projection process by accentuating high frequency component found in the data and image noise increases with this thereby decreasing contrast.

Spatial resolution is the ability of CT scanner to display, as separate images, two objects that are very close to each other. This is most commonly described in term of full width half maximum which is the measure of how well a point is reproduced in the image. Spatial resolution measurement are determined by using test object of high contrast. This makes it possible to ignore the effect of noise on spatial resolution measurement. The spatial resolution is affected by many design parameters of which the most important are

 Filters---- the various filters control the amount of image blurring created by accentuating high frequency component found in the data. For a crisp image the high spatial frequencies are accentuated, and this has the effect of sharpening the edges and improving spatial resolution. Opening size of detector aperture----- This is the effective size of each detector in the image plane. A small detector aperture produces a narrow ray, less blur and better image detail. When a portion of the detector is covered, however, the geometric efficiency is reduced.

 An increase in radiation exposure to the patient is then required to produce the same image quality with respect to noise. Ray sample interval----- If the spacing between rays significantly exceeds the dimension of small objects or anatomical detail, the detail will not appear on the image. The rays must be sufficiently close during the scanning procedure to measure any anatomical detail that is to appear in the image. Voxel and pixel size-------since a specific pixel can have only one CT number value, there can be no detail within a pixel.

 In other words all detail within the tissue voxel represented by a pixel is blurred together and assigned a single value. Anatomical detail within the voxel cannot be imaged therefore small voxels are needed when image detail is required. Three factors determine voxel size: field of view, matrix size and slice thickness. Since mammography is a technique for the radiographic examination of the breast which consist of connective tissue, glandular tissue, skin and fat, and all must be visualized but all have very similar attenuation coefficient.

 In order to maximize difference in attenuation coefficient of these various structures a low energy x-rays spectrum needs to be used. For this imaging situation, the use of a broad spectrum bremsstrahlung spectrum from tungsten is far from ideal and it is now standard practice to make use of the characteristic radiation fro a lower atomic number material. Molybdenum has an intermediate atomic number of 42, has a k edge at 20keV and produces two rather intense characteristic x-ray energies: k-alpha radiation, at 17.9keV, and kbeta, at 19.5keV.

 The x-ray tube potential is about 30kVp. When the tube is operated at 30 to 40 kVp, a molybdenum tube will also produce considerable bremsstrahlung with high energies greater than 20keV. This higher energy radiation will reduce contrast in breast soft tissue structures. To reduce the amount of higher energy radiation in the molybdenum tube spectrum, a molybdenum filter of 0.030mm thickness is commonly used. This filter will attenuate x-rays just above the 20keV K edge of Mo very strongly, but will transmit 57% of the 17.5K-alpha and 67%of the

 19.6keV K- beta radiation of molybdenum. The screens used in mammography are rare earth screens in which the principal interaction is the photoelectric effect with the L shell electrons (the K edge for rare earth materials is in the region of 50keV). Because of the low x-ray energy, the screen are thinner than for routine radiography, thus reducing unsharpness. A single screen is used with a single sided emulsion. The screen (and emulsion) is on the distal side of the film, furthest from the x-ray tube and patient. This arrangement is used because the highest proportion of the photon

 interactions and thus light production, will be on the side of the screen closest to the film and this serves to minimize further the screen unsharpness. They are able to produce a limiting resolution of 151p/mm or better.