Beam Restrictors

Dannalyn D. Ibañez, RRT

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 Two principal characteristics that
makes the image quality:

• Contrast resolution- the ability

to distinguish anatomical
structures of similar subject
contrast.
• Spatial resolution- refers to the
ability to image small objects
that have high subject contrast.

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 Purpose of Collimation

• Reduce radiation exposure to

unnecessary tissue
• Reduce the amount of scatter
radiation
• Improve contrast

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 Factors affecting amount
of scatter
• Kvp
• Field Size
• Patient thickness or part/ tissue
composition & density

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 Beam-restricting devices

• Are designed to control and

minimize scatter radiation
by limiting the x-ray field
size to only the anatomy of
interest.
• -it restricts the volume of
irradiated tissue.

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 Effects of collimation on scatter

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 SCATTER VS. FIELD-OF-VIEW

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 SCATTER VS. PATIENT THICKNESS

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 Three principal types of beam-
restricting devices:

• Aperture diaphragm
• Cones and cylinders
• Collimators

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 APERTURE DIAPHRAGM

• It is the simplest of all beam

restricting devices.
• It is a lead plate that has small
square or rectangular cut and is
attached to the x-ray tube.

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 APERTURE DIAPHRAGM

• The opening in the diaphragm usually is

designed to cover just less than the
size of the image receptor used.
• Is a fixed lead opening designed for a
fixed image receptor size and constant
SID.
• Used in trauma, dental and chest
radiography with fixed-aperture
diaphragms.
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 APERTURE DIAPHRAGM

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 CONES AND CYLINDERS
• modifications of the aperture
diaphragm.
• are metal pipes
• their conical or cylindrical shapes
limit the x-ray beam to a round field.
• they are both called cones, but the
most common used type is the
cylinder.
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 CONES AND CYLINDERS

• A major difficulty using cones is

alignment
• If the x-ray source, cone, and IR are
not aligned on the same axis, one
side of the radiograph may not be
exposed.
• Cone cutting

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 CONES AND CYLINDERS

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 VARIABLE APERTURE COLLIMATOR

• is the most
commonly
used beam-
restricting
device in
radiography.
•A light-
localizing
device

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 VARIABLE APERTURE COLLIMATOR

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 X-RAY TUBE
ROTATING
ANODE

IRIS APERTURE

OPPOSING SETS OF
LEAD COLLIMATOR
BLADES

COLLIMATED
X-RAY BEAM

FILM
CASSETTE FIELD SIZE

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 COLLIMATOR OF
PORTABLE X-RAY
UNIT

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Positive Beam Limiting devices (PBL)

• PBL was mandated by the U.S

Food and Drug administration in
1974.
• The regulation was removed in
1994, but PBL prevails.

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 Positive Beam Limiting devices
(PBL)
• Found in the Bucky mechanism of
the radiographic table
• Once the film is detected by the
sensors in the bucky tray, the
shutters of the collimator either
close or open to limit the size of
the x-ray beam to the film area.

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 • The PBL can be used to
manually collimate more
tightly to reduce patient dose
to improve image quality.
• Under no circumstances
should the x-ray beam exceed
the size of the I.R

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 EFFECT ON FILTRATION

• Additional collimator filtration

may be necessary to produce
high-quality radiographs with
minimum patient exposure.
• Filtration decreases radiographic
density.

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 • Filtration is the process of
eliminating undesirable low-
energy x-ray photons by
insertion of absorbing
materials into the primary
beam.

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 FILTRATION

• The primary purpose of

adding filtration to an x-ray
beam is to remove selectively
low-energy x-rays that have
little chance of getting to the
image receptor.

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 Filtration, X-ray Quality, X-ray
Quantity

• Increasing filtration increases

the quality of an x-ray beam.
• As filtration is increased, so is
the beam quality, but quantity
is decreased.

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 Total Filtration

Total filtration consists of:

• Inherent filt. of x-ray tube = 0.5 mm Al
• Added filter = 1.0 mm Al
• Mirror filter = 1.0 mm Al
2.5 mm Al

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 INHERENT FILTRATION

• Most of the inherent filtration

comes from the window of the
glass envelope.

• Inherent filtration of a general

purpose x-ray tube is
approximately 0.5mm Al
equivalent.
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 ADDED FILTRATION

•A thin sheet aluminium

positioned between the
protective x-ray tube housing
and the x-ray beam collimator.

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 TOTAL FILTRATION

• The added filtration of the

collimator assembly is usually
equivalent to approximately 1
mm Al.

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 QUESTIONS

• What are the factors affecting

scatter radiation?
• Discuss the three different types of
beam-restricting devices.
• What is the purpose of filtration?
• What are the two types of filtration?
• What is the effect of filtration on
scatter radiation?
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 COLLIMATORS FOR PEOPLE

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