CT at a Glance

Euclid Seeram, PhD, MSc, BSc, FCAMRT, has academic appointments in Medical Imaging and is Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Department of Radiology of the University of Sydney, Australia. In addition, he is Adjunct Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing, and Health Sciences at Monash University, Australia; Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Science, Charles Stuart University, Australia, and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Faculty of Health, University of Canberra, Australia.

Foreword viii

Preface ix

Acknowledgements x

1 Computed tomography: an overview 2

2 Major components of a CT scanner 6

3 How CT scanners work 9

4 Data acquisition principles 12

5 X-ray tubes and generator technologies 15

6 X-ray beam filtration and collimation 18

7 Essential physics: radiation attenuation 21

8 Attenuation measurements and CT numbers 24

9 CT detector technology basics 27

10 CT image reconstruction basics 30

11 CT image display and storage 33

12 CT and picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) 36

13 CT image postprocessing 38

14 Multislice CT – essential principles: part 1 42

15 Multislice CT – essential principles: part 2 46

16 Image quality: part 1 50

17 Image quality: part 2 – spatial resolution 53

18 Image quality: part 3 – contrast resolution 56

19 Image quality: part 4 – noise 59

20 Image quality: part 5 – artifacts 62

21 CT dose optimization: part 1 65

22 CT dose optimization: part 2 68

23 Optimization of radiation protection in CT 70

24 CT quality control basics 73

Index 76