Computed Tomography

Basic principles

V.G.Wimalasena
Principal
School of Radiography
 Introduction
 Computed tomography (CT) is a medical imaging
method employing tomography.
 The word "tomography" is derived from the Greek
tomos (slice) and graphein (to write).
 A large series of two-dimensional X-ray images (slices)
of the inside of an object are taken around a single axis
of rotation.
 Digital geometry processing is used to generate three-
dimensional images of the object from those slices.
 History
 The first commercially viable CT scanner was
invented by Sir Godfrey Hounsfield in Hayes,
United Kingdom at EMI Central Research
Laboratories using X-rays. Hounsfield conceived
his idea in 1967. and it was publicly announced
in 1972.
 Allan McLeod Cormack of Tufts University in
Massachusetts independently invented a similar
process, and both Hounsfield and Cormack
shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Prototype CT scanner
Historic EMI Scanner
Modern CT scanner
 Label
1. gantry aperture (720mm diameter)
2. microphone
3. sagittal laser alignment light
4. patient guide lights
5. x-ray exposure indicator light
6. emergency stop buttons
7. gantry control panels
8. external laser alignment lights
9. patient couch
10. ECG gating monitor
CT Gantry –Internal structure
 Label
1. x-ray tube
2. filters, collimator, and reference detector
3. internal projector
4. x-ray tube heat exchanger (oil cooler)
5. high voltage generator (0-75kV)
6. direct drive gantry motor
7. rotation control unit
8. data acquisition system (DAS)
9. detectors
10. slip rings
 Understanding Basic factors
 Absorption :-stopping of
x-rays with transfer of
energy Scattered x-rays
 Scatter:- deflection of x-
rays
 Incident Intensity :- No.
of x-ray photons falling
on an object Transmitted
 Transmitted Intensity:- X-ray beam
Incident x-
No. of photons passing ray beam
through
 Attenuation
The reduction of the beam More dense
intensity on passing material Less
through the material due transmitted
to absorption plus scatter x-rays
The degree of attenuation
is obtained by measuring More
and comparing the transmitted
incident and transmitted x-rays
intensities

Less dense
material
Applications of X-ray attenuation &
detection

 Conventional X-ray (Radiography)

 Conventional Tomography
 Computed Tomography
 Conventional X-Ray
 Conventional x-ray
produces a compression
of a volume to a plane
 The detector is the Silver
halide crystal on a x-ray
film
 The degree of
blackening represents the
total attenuation through
the path of x-ray
photons
 The higher the
attenuation the lesser is
the blackness
 The structure which
results more attenuation
or more transmission
predominates in the
image
 Conventional Tomography
 The source and detector
moves
 Produces Images of
coronal or sagittal
sections (cuts) of areas
of interest
 Eliminates the
superimposition of
structures above and
below
 CT Scan
 CT scan produces axial
sections/cuts /Slices X-ray tube
 The CT image is
recorded through a
SCAN.
 Scan?
 A scan is made up of
multiple X-Ray
attenuation
measurements around an
objects periphery
Detector
 Slice / Cut
 The cross sectional
portion of the body
which is scanned for the
production of CT image
is called a slice.
 The slice has width and
therefore volume.
 The width is determined
by the width of the x-ray
beam

To be continued
….CTComplementary2