RAINS Sydney 2019

Review of Radiographic Principles

Johnathan Hewis
Senior Lecturer in Medical Imaging
School of Dentistry & Health Sciences

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 Basic CT Components

X-ray production X-ray interaction X-ray detection

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X-ray production

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X-ray Tube

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Heat Units Calculation
HU = kVp X mA x time

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 X-ray Production

High-speed electrons bombard the target resulting in:

• Heat producing collisions

• X-ray producing collisions

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Heat Producing Collision 1

Tungsten Atom

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Heat Producing Collision 2

Tungsten Atom

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 Heat Producing Collisions

• Many incoming electrons + many outer shell tungsten

electrons = VERY common

• A bombarding electron can undergo many heat-

producing collisions

• Heat dissipation is critical

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 X-ray Producing Collisions

• Produced when high-speed (energetic) electrons

bombard a target material

Two types of x-ray producing collisions that result in two

types of x-ray spectra:

• Continuous or bremsstrahlung
• Characteristic

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Bremsstrahlung

Tungsten Atom

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 X-ray Spectra - Bremsstrahlung
• Deceleration and
degree of deflection
determines resultant Emission Spectra
photon energy

# photons (intensity)
• Wide range or
spectrum of photon
energies possible
• Small deflections
most common
resulting in lots of
low-energy photons -
need for filtration
• Maximum photon
energy is directly Photo energy (keV)
related to kV
selection

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Characteristic

Tungsten Atom

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X-ray Spectra - Characteristic

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 X-ray Spectra - Characteristic

• L lines are low Emission Spectra

# photons (intensity)
energy

• Only K lines
diagnostically
important

• In x-ray equipment
employing a kV
Photo energy (keV)
>69.5 the resultant
spectrum will be
combination
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 Effect of increasing mA

A change in mA
results in Emission Spectra

# photons (intensity)
proportional
change in
amplitude of the x-
ray emission
spectra at all
energies

Example: change
from 200mA to
400mA whilst all
other parameters Photo energy (keV)
remain constant

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 Effect of increasing kVp

A change in kVp
affects both the Emission Spectra

# photons (intensity)
amplitude and the
position of the
resultant x-ray
spectrum. The
position of
characteristic
emissions are has
no effect.

Example: change
from 72kVp to Photo energy (keV)
82kVp whilst all
other parameters
remain constant
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 Quantity/Intensity & Quality

An increase in x-ray quality x-ray quantity

mAs None Increased

kVp Increased Increased

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X-ray interaction

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 X-ray interaction

X-ray photon interactions with

matter:
1. Transmitted unchanged
direction with no loss of
energy
2. Scattered with no loss of
energy (pure scatter =
unmodified/Rayleigh &
Thompson scattering)
3. Scattered with some
absorption & loss of energy
(Compton effect)
4. Absorbed with total loss of
energy (pure absorption =
Photoelectric effect or Pair
production)

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Photo-electric Absorption

Atom of Matter

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 Photoelectric Effect/Absorption

• Predominant interaction with matter and lower energy x-

ray photons

• Overall result is ionisation of tissue

• Attenuation is essential for diagnosis

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Compton Effect/Scatter

Atom of M

Atom of Matter

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 Compton Effect/Scattering

• Predominates with higher-energy photons; probability of

Compton scattering is inversely proportional to x-ray
energy and is independent of atomic number

• Is an absorption & scatter process

• Not dependent on atomic number (Z) = limited diagnostic

information

• Overall result is ionisation of tissue

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Compton Scattering

Back scatter Forward scatter

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 Attenuation

Dominant mode of interaction of x-rays in a region of the body varies

with photon energy, effective atomic number & electron density of the
region
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X-ray detection

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 CT Detectors

CT imaging trends:
• Increasing number of slices
• Increased speed of acquisition
• Dose reduction

• Segmented, solid-state detectors = key enabler

• Iterative reconstruction > low & ultra low dose > noise

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 CT Detector Design

• Generally common
detector design
• Arrays of detector
elements Scintillator

Detector element size & Photodiode

array configuration effects: Substrate
• Spatial Resolution
• Minimum slice thickness
available
• # slices in one rotation Electrical Signals

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 References

Bushing, S. (2016). Radiologic science for technologists. (13th edition). St.

Louis. Elsevier Mosby.

Seeram, E. (2016). Computed tomography: physical principles, clinical

applications, and quality control. (4th edition). St. Louis. Saunders Elsevier.

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