Film Processing

• Why film processing is needed?

 General Principles of CT
• The X-ray tube and detector are rigidly coupled and rotate continuously around
the scan field while x—rays are emitted and detected.
• Typically images are obtained for 360 degree rotation, permitting a high
number of measurement data to be acquired and sufficient dose to be applied.
• While the scan is bieng performed, attenuation profiles, also referred to as
samples or projections are obtained..
• Attenuation profile is the collection of the signals obtained from all detector
channels of a given angular position of the tube-detector unit.
• Modern CT system acquires appox. 1400 projections over 360 degree rotation.
• Each attenuation profile comprises of data obtained from about 1500 detector
channels, about 30 channels per degree for a fan beam of 50 degree.
• While the patient table is moving continously through the gantry, a digital
radiograph is produced.
First Generation CT Scanner

Rotate Translate
Pencil Beam
Second Generation CT Scanner

Rotate Translate
Narrow Fan Beam
Third Generation CT Scanner

Rotate Translate
Narrow Fan Beam
Fourth Generation CT Scanner

Rotate
Stationary
•Third-generation and fourth-generation CT geometries solved the mechanical inertia
limitations involved in acquisition of the individual projection data by eliminating the
translation motion used in first- and second-generation scanners.

•The gantry had be stopped after each slice was acquired, because the detectors (in
third-generation scanners) and the x-ray tube (in third- and fourth-generation
machines) had to be connected by wires to the stationary scanner electronics.

•slip ring technology: A slip ring is a circular contact with sliding brushes that allows
the gantry to rotate continually, untethered by wires. This technology evolved 3 rd and
4th generation CT.

•The use of slip-ring technology eliminated the inertial limitations at the end of each
slice acquisition, and the rotating gantry was free to rotate continuously throughout
the entire patient examination.
 Fifth Generation CT Scanner
• Electron Cone Beam Tomography (ECBT)
• does not use a conventional x-ray tube
• large arc of tungsten encircles the patient and lies
directly opposite to the detector ring.
• Primarily to cardiologists.
 Sixth Generation CT Scanner

Helical CT scanners acquire data while the table is moving; as a

result, the x-ray source moves in a helical pattern around the
patient being scanned.

•slip-ring designs are used

•total scan time required to

image the patient can be
much shorter (e.g., 30
seconds,abdomen).

•less contrast
•agent and increases patient
throughput

•Minimal motion artifacts

 Seventh Generation CT Scanner: Multiple Detector Array

With the introduction of multiple detector arrays, the slice thickness is

determined by the detector size and not by the collimator. This
represents a major shift in CT technology.

The first multislice CT scanner, called the C TWIN, was

developed in 1993 and, as the name implies, it employed
a double ring of solid-state detectors, separated by an
annular ring of tungsten to prevent cross-scatter between
each ring of detectors.