If you are a student in training or totally new to x-ray physics are you feeling: overwhelmed or confused with the all the terminology and physics concepts pressured or embarrassed that you don’t know the answers to questions from senior technologists during your clinicals unsure of radiation effects and nervous about mass media coverage you …
The Contrast to Noise Ratio (CNR) in a medical image is a measure of the contrast between the tissue of interest and the background (i.e. the neighboring tissue). The Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) is a measure of the image signal in a given region to the background. The ability to visualize objects in a …
The spatial resolution of an x-ray or CT system is a measure of how the ability of a system to differentiate small structures. If you imagine imaging a very small point like object an image of that object is called the Point Spread Function (PSF). When this function is radially averaged the Line Spread Function …
X- ray Resolution (PSF, MTF, NPS, DQE) for radiologic technologists Read More »
In x-ray imaging (radiography and CT) the contrast between the tissues in the image is generated by the difference between the x-ray attenuation (influenced by density and atomic number). In this post we demonstrate the material dependence for x-ray attenuation. For all radiographers, radiologic technologists and students understanding the basic principles of x-ray interactions, which …
X-ray attenuation of tissues [thickness, atomic number] for Radiologic Technologists Read More »
Magnification occurs in x-ray imaging because the x-rays are divergent or spread out from the x-ray source. Therefore, the object will appear larger on the detector than the true object size. Magnification in radiography is defined as (Image Size/Object Size) and is equal to the (SID/SOD) which is the source to image distance divided by …
Beam Quality describes the shape of the energy spectrum (i.e. the energy distribution of the x-rays) and beam quantity describes the total intensity of the spectrum (i.e. the area under the x-ray spectrum curve). In this post we describe the factors affecting beam quality including: kVp, target material, and pre-patient collimation. We also discuss the …
Beam Quality, Beam Quantity (mA, kVp, HVL) for Radiologic Technologist Read More »
The motivation for gonad shielding is to reduce the hereditary specific risks of radiation, and it is still common practice at many institutions. The reasons that shielding will soon be phased out include: hereditary risk in humans has not been demonstrated even at high doses, the radiation doses have reduced greatly from the 1950s (orders …
The x-ray interactions are Photoelectric, Compton and Coherent. Photoelectric is mainly responsible for image contrast, Compton contributes to artifacts in the images, and Coherent scattering has little influence in most diagnostic (x-ray/CT) procedures. Overview of the Physics Behind X-Ray Interactions When x-rays interact with the human body during an x-ray exposure, they form an image …
Basics of x-ray properties for radiographers and radiologic technologists include: wave and particle models for x-rays, relationships between Energy, wavelength and frequency, and 1/R^2 effect. Radiation Radiation is energy emitted/transmitted as a wave or particle that travels through a medium (such as the air or a patient). A brief comparison of the different types of …
X-Ray Properties (Energy, Wavelength, Inverse Square Law) For Radiologic Technologists Read More »
X-ray scatter due to Compton Scatter generates background haze in x-ray images and there is a desire to reduce the scatter impact on image quality. X-ray scatter depends on several physical factors including: body habitus (increases with increased habitus), kVp, collimation (increases with increased kVp), air gap (decreases with increased air gap), and anti-scatter grids …
