Computed Radiography의 영상특성에 관한 연구

Study of Image Properties for Computed Radiography

Computed radiography(CR) has been widely used in the field of diagnostic radiography since digital X-ray image was introduced. The imaging performance of CR system was studied by analyzing the digital image data of the CR images which are the outcomes of the whole imaging system composed of image plate(IP), laser digitizer, analoge-digital convertor, and a given image processing unit. In this study, we used a conventional CR system made by Agfa. From the flat field image of 150$\times$150 image pixels, signal-to-noise ratio(SNR) was calculated. SNR of the CR image increases in proportion to logarithm value of the X-ray exposure irradiated on the IP. SNR is less than about 6 at the exposure below 0.2mR and is more than 10 at the exposure above 0.54mR. In our study, most of images obtained by the smaller exposures less than 2.0mR can not be readable. In general, the minimum value of the SNR ranges from 3 to 5. We obtained modulation transfer function(MTF) by analyzing the bar pattern image which was made under conditions as follows: X-ray tube potential was 55kVp, the IP exposure was 0.54 mR, and the distance between X-ray source to IP was 2m, where bar pattern was located on the IP. MTF is 23% at 2.5lp/mm spatial frequency. Provided that the MTF of noise equivalent modulation is 10%, the CR system has the limiting spatial resolution of 3.2lp/mm. If the image sharpness is evaluated by the spatial frequency where MTF is 50%. the corresponding spatial frequency is 0.5$\sim$0.75lp/mm. MTFA(Modulation Transfer Function Area) is 1.0lp/mm. Compared with the Fuji CR whose MTFA is 1.1lp/mm, Agfa CR in this study shows almost same MTFA performance.