Fundamentals of CT Flashcards
What are the main principles of CT?
X-ray tube
Patient
Fan of x-rays
X-ray detectors
What are the effects of a large focus spot?
Blurring
Geometric unsharpness
What focal spot should an X-ray have?
Small focal spot-high load/heat
Good cooling system
What does pre collimation determine?
Slice thickness
What does post collimation limit?
Amount of scatter “noise” reaching the detector.
What does filtration do?
Filters excess intensity at edges of projection
What are the essential components of CT?
X-ray tube
Collimation
Filtration
What do gas detectors do?
Ionise Xenon and electrons are attracted to the conductor producing an electrical signal.
What do solid state detectors do?
Crystals absorb radiation
Connected to a photomultiplier tube
Light is proportional to radiation
What are the advantages of SSD?
Fast
Stable
Small
How many detectors did a 1st Gen CT have?
Single
rotated round to fixed angles to acquire data
How many detectors dis the 2nd gen have?
Multiple (up to 30)
several projections at once
How many detectors dis the 3rd gen have?
Large bank (100S)
Continously rotating fan
Bowtie filter
What did the bowtie filter control?
Excessive variations in signal strength.
reduce skin dose/beam hardening
How many detectors dis the 4th gen have?
Ring of fixed detectors
X-ray tube rotates 360 degrees
Restrained to two rotations due to power cords
What does spiral/helical scanning allow?
Allows continuous rotation
Move patient in z direction allows large quantities of data.
What do multi-slice scanners allow
3rd or 4th gen
Multiple banks of detectors
Several slices of acquisiton per gantry rotation
What is the process of image acquisition?
Measure average LAC between X-ray and detector (generates a projection)