X-Ray Production

Question 1

what is included in the production of a radiographic image

Answer 1

• Source of X-rays - x-ray machine - production of X-rays

• Object
○ Teeth and jaws
○ Interaction of X-rays with matter
○ No interaction means we are not going to get an image

• Image receptor
○ Digital or film

• Processing
○ Conversion of latent image to permanent visible image by computer technology or chemical

Question 2

when are x-rays produced

Answer 2

X-rays are produced when fast moving electrons are rapidly decelerated

Question 3

what is an electron

Answer 3

Negatively charged particle in an atom (negative)

Question 4

where are electrons found

Answer 4

Conceptually sited in orbits about the nucleus (positive) - the Bohr model

Question 5

what are the components of the x-ray machine

Answer 5

• Wall mounted
○ Can also be mounted from the ceiling or mobile on something that has wheels

• Tube head - contains x-ray tube
• Jointed, positioning arm

• Control panel
○ Can either be attached or separate ~ Allows you to choose the right exposure for the radiographic image you are creating

Question 6

what is in a siemens heliodent MD tubehead

Answer 6

• Tubehead

• Spacer cone
○ Either cylinder or rectangular

• Rectangular collimation
○ Built in or inserted
○ This controls the shape of the beam [All machines have this]

Question 7

what are the components of the x-ray tube head

Answer 7

• Filament - cathode
• Transformer

• Target - anode
○ This is what we bombard the electrons at
○ Positively charged part of the tube

• Target surround
• Evacuated glass envelope
• Shielding
• Filtration
• Collimator
• Spacer cone

Question 8

what is the filament

Answer 8

• Negative
• Made of tungsten

• Filament circuit (step down transformer)
○ Low voltage, high current
○ An electrical circuit runs through the filament and it follows the current coming out of the wall going through a step down transformer to produce a low voltage, high current which is then going to make something happen at that filament

• Tiny little bit of coiled wire, difficult to see, embedded within

Question 9

what is tungsten

Answer 9

• Symbol: W

• Z = 74 ~ number of protons / electrons ~ these are the same because it is a stable atom
○ High atomic number - this is useful

• Melting point = 3410˚C

Question 10

what is one of the reasons we use tungsten

Answer 10

One of the reasons we use tungsten is because of its really high melting point which means we can use the filament again and again and it won’t degrade or melt - it will maintain it’s integrity

Question 11

what is the function of the filament

Answer 11

• Filament - cathode
• Low voltage current passed through filament circuit
• Filament heats up to incandescence

• Electrons form a cloud around filament
○ Some of the electrons come out of the atoms and these form the cloud
○ We have the electrons and they are around the filament
○ Similar to steam coming out of a hot cup of coffee

• So what we want to do is effectively pull the electrons over towards the positive side of the x-ray tube but to do this we need to have a very high voltage - this is where the step-up transformer comes into play

Question 12

what does the transformer do

Answer 12

• Step up
○ Copper coils inside the tube head, at the front of the tube
○ Hollow centre
○ Transformer in front of the tube allows the whole tube head to be a bit smaller

• 240 eV domestic input
○ This is our electricity supply

• 60-70 keV high voltage output
○ We want to put out 60-70,000 volts
○ We need to make a very big change
○ Apply this to our x-ray tube which then creates the potential difference between the negative filament and the positive target which creates this very powerful force which will attract the negative electrons to the positive target

• Huge attraction of negative electrons (mA) from cathode towards positive anode (target)
• Flow of electrons ~ 7 to 15 mA

Question 13

new x-ray equipment should operate within what range

Answer 13

New equipment should operate within the range 60 to 70 kV ….

Old machines may operate at 50 kV and this has an impact on patient dose and has an impact on how the x-ray beam will interact with matter

Question 14

what is the target

Answer 14

Target - anode

• Positive
• Tungsten
• Effective area 0.7mm2

• 20˚ slope (ie not parallel to filament)
○ This is important as it is a way of having a target that is in fact a rectangle (which we refer to as a square) called the effective area
○ Also a way to increase the efficiency of what we are doing

• Referred to also as focus or focal spot

Question 15

what happens when electrons interact with the target (which is a solid metal)

Answer 15

• Heat production - 99%
○ Majority of electrons will undergo an interaction which will result in heat production
○ This is a very inefficient way of producing x-rays but it is the way it has to be done
○ 99% of the energy carried by the fast moving electrons is converted into heat

• X-ray production - <1%
○ Continuous spectrum
§ Term spectrum means we are talking about energy values
○ Characteristic spectrum
§ Characteristic to tungsten the material where the interactions are happening
○ Only a little under 1% of the energy is actually converted into x-rays

Question 16

what happens with regards to heat production produced by target interactions

Answer 16

• Incoming electron (e-)
○ Deflected by cloud of outer-shell tungsten electrons, or collides with an outer shell electron, displacing it

• Small loss of energy (E)
• Loss of energy in form of heat

• Removed through copper block, oil, then air
○ Small tungsten target is set into a block of copper which is very good at conducting heat away
○ Then the x-ray tube is surrounded by oil which is also good at conducting heat away
○ Can get quite warm around an x-ray machine if they are used again and again and again as there is always this heat being produced

Question 17

what is the target surround

Answer 17

• Copper - Cu
○ Same colour as coils - like a pinky colour

• Z = 29

• Melting point= 1080˚C
○ Not nearly as high as tungsten

• Effective heat conductor
○ It is there to get rid of the heat
○But also is there so there is something for the target to be set into because it is so small

Question 18

what happens during target interactions that causes x-ray productions on the continuous spectrum

Answer 18

X-ray production: continuous spectrum = interactions that does result in x-rays
(Bremsstrahlung = braking / white radiation)

• Incoming e- passes close to nucleus of a target atom
○ Gets through the outer cloud and gets quite close to the nucleus

• E- rapidly decelerated and deflected
○ Has its direction changed as well

• Amount of deceleration and deflection proportional to E loss
○ These 2 things together give an indication as to how much energy is lost

• E loss in form of electromagnetic radiation as a continuous spectrum of energies
○ There is a range of energy that can be lost
○ It is dependent on what is the applied kV

• Maximum E is applied kV (eg 70 kV)
○ So a 70kV machine means the maximum energy would be 70 and the minimum would be down just above 0

Question 19

why are low energy x-rays not useful to us in image production

Answer 19

they don’t have enough energy to actually get through the tissues to help to create an image - we need to get rid of them later because it is the higher ones that we actually want

Question 20

what happens to target interactions the cause x-ray production: characteristic spectrum

Answer 20

X-ray production: characteristic spectrum
Characteristic to a particular element - in this case it is characteristic to tungsten

• Incoming e- collides with an inner shell (orbit) target e-
○ So the incoming electron gets through outer shell but doesn’t get as far as the nucleus, it then collides with an electron already on an inner shell

• Target e- displaced to an outer shell or completely lost from atom
○ Because of the collision the inner shell electron will either be displaced and move further away from the nucleus or it might be knocked right out

• Target atom unstable
○ It is unstable whether the electron is displaced or lost
○ Atoms don’t like being unstable so they are going to rearrange the electrons instantly to get back their stability

• Orbiting e-s re-arranged to fill vacant orbital slots to return atom to neutral state
○ Rearrange themselves automatically in order to have the right number of electrons in each of the electron shells
○ If it is completely lost then there will be some loose electrons nearby that can just drop into a shell

• Difference in E between orbits is released as characteristic radiation, of known E values
○ Electrons are in shells of different binding energy values
○ The difference between that energy is released when it is re-arranged and that is what is called characteristic radiation

• Same mechanism as photoelectric absorption - covered in lecture on interaction with matter
○ Very important mechanism

Question 21

what is tungsten characteristic radiation

Answer 21

Characteristic radiation of tungsten has values of approximately:

○ 8kV - L shell ~ second shell out from the nucleus

○ 58kV - K shell

○ 68kV - K shell

§ These are useful energies = good

Question 22

what is the glass envelope

Answer 22

• Evacuate glass
• Vacuum prevents risk of interaction of electrons with air atoms prior to meeting target

The vacuum is inside the glass

Question 23

what is generated at the target

Answer 23

x-rays that go off in all different directions

Question 24

why is there lead

Answer 24

to absorb x-rays that are trying to get out of the tube head

ie the x-rays we are not using

Question 25

what is sheilding

Answer 25

• Lead - Pb
○ Very good absorber of x-rays
○ This is because it has a high atomic number

• Z = 82
○ More than tungsten

• To ensure dose rate in vicinity not greater than 7.5µSvh-1
○ That the radiation coming out in the vicinity of the tube is not more than the 7.5 micro sieverts per hour
○ If the dose rate is not more than this number this means that the people who work with these machines will not get more radiation than they are legally allowed to
○ In most machines, the dose rate will be much lower than this anyway

• Sv = sievert

Question 26

what is filtration

Answer 26

• This is where we are going to get rid of the low energy x-rays that we don’t want
• Aluminium - Al

• Z = 13
○ Very low atomic number, means it is going to be good at interacting with low energy x-rays but high energy x-rays are going to be able to get through it
○ This is important because we want the high energy x-rays to produce the beam

Question 27

what controls how thick the disc of aluminium should be in an x-ray and what are the sizes

Answer 27

• The law controls how thick the disc of aluminium should be

○ 1.5mm < or = 70kV
§ This is all dental x-ray machines

○ 2.5mm > 70kV
§ Panoramic machine can use higher kV

Question 28

what is the result of using aluminium

Answer 28

Final spectrum of X-ray energies in a filtered beam

we are then left with our useful beam which still has some low energy x-ray photos but fewer of them

Question 29

what is the collimator

Answer 29

• The component that is going to control the shape of the x-ray beam and depending how far it is from the patient it will also control the size of the beam at the patient
○ This brings in the importance of using the machine correctly and having everything at the right distance

• Lead

• Circular or rectangular diaphragm
○ Most machines start off producing a circular shape of x-ray beam
○ The beam coming out of the filtration part is obviously going to be a circle
○ But we want to use a rectangular beam to take bitewings and periapicals and also often occlusal so then we would have to have a rectangular shaped collimator as well
§ Sometimes this is removable but in some modern machines it is not removable so there is no option but to use the rectangular one

• Maximum beam diameter - 60mm at patient end of spacer cone
○ The law says about the maximum beam diameter (when we are talking about a circular beam) is that it must not be more than 60mm when measured at the patient end of the spacer cone
○ To measure it: put the spacer cone directly onto an occlusal image receptor, make an exposure then measure it

Question 30

what is rectangualr collimation

Answer 30

• Rectangular collimation should be provided on new equipment, and retro fitted to existing equipment

• When using a rectangular collimator you need to be able to get the orientation right so that it is lined up with the image receptor
○ So the beam aiming device part of the film holder has little marks to show where the corners of the rectangle should go

Question 31

what size should be the beam be in collimation

Answer 31

• Circular - no greater than 60mm diameter at patient end of spacer cone
○ Area - 2828 sq. mm
○ The circle below shows the size of a 60mm beam which gives an area of just under 3000 sq. mm

• Rectangular
○ Area - 2000 sq. mm

• 30% reduction
○ Even this rectangle, which is quite large, is a reduction in area of almost a 1/3 when compared to the circular one
○ This means a reduction in dose for the patient of this amount
○ Doing this for every single intra-oral this will add up ~ good way of reducing dose for the patient but the orientation of the rectangle does need to be right

Question 32

what is the spacer cone

Answer 32

• Part that helps us line up our x-ray tube head correctly
○ Originally they were cone shaped but they are not this shape anymore and haven’t been for decades

• Direction indicating device
○ Or beam-indicating device (BID)

• Circular or rectangular
○ They can be removable
○ If they are fixed you have to be able to rotate them around so that you can get the orientation correctly

• Controls target (focus) - skin distance ie it controls the distance between the target and the patient’s skin and this distance is controlled by law
○ 100mm < 60kV
§ Not the same kV that the filtration is related to
§ This is for older machines
○ 200mm = or > 60kV
§ Used to be long spacer cones because the transformer was the back of the tube head but now the transformer is in front

• Not to be confused with the beam-aiming device of film holders (the ring)

Question 33

what does the spacer cone control

Answer 33

• Controls focus-skin distance (fsd)

* Measure from external marker to patient end of cone [External mark shows where the focus is]

Question 34

what is fsd

Answer 34

focus-skin distance

Question 35

when would you use long fsd

Answer 35

• Use long x-ray focus-skin distance (fsd) to reduce magnification
@ least 20 cm
• NB long spacer cone = long fsd

Question 36

what does the longer distance allow for

Answer 36

Having the longer distance we make the different x-rays in our beam be more parallel which is good because then we get less magnification and distortion

Question 37

apologies for how shocking these flashcards are xoxo

Answer 37

i flipping hate radiology :)))

xoxo gossip girl