Performance Evaluation of CT Using Visible Scintillation Light

We propose the use of visible scintillation light for monitoring the X-ray CT in the gantry of a diagnostic CT for its performance test and maintenance works. We placed a disk of bare plastic scintillator disk in the gantry opening area of a helical X-ray CT. When we operated the CT, we could observe the emission of blue scintillation light from the scintillator in a dark room. Visible light was identified under all scanning conditions of diagnostic uses. As a result, we observed the direction and the spread of the incident X-ray in the scintillator. We also observed the change of the part of the scintillator where visible light was generated, and the move that took place associating with the rotation of the X-ray tube during one CT scan. On the basis of the observation, we examined the usefulness of the visible scintillation light as a convenient performance-evaluating tool as well as a maintenance tool of the CT.