RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 CT Artifact Recognition for the Nuclear Technologist
JF Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
JO J. Nucl. Med. Technol.
FD Society of Nuclear Medicine
SP 79
OP 81
DO 10.2967/jnmt.107.047431
VO 36
IS 2
A1 Robert Popilock
A1 Kumar Sandrasagaren
A1 Lowell Harris
A1 Keith A. Kaser
YR 2008
UL http://tech.snmjournals.org/content/36/2/79.abstract
AB The goal of this article is to make the PET/CT and SPECT/CT operator aware of common artifacts found in CT. In diagnostic imaging, the ability to render an accurate diagnosis requires the technologist to take steps to optimize image quality and recognize when image quality has been compromised—that is, when there is an image artifact. One way these artifacts occur is through the inability of the CT linear attenuation image to precisely represent the linear attenuation map of a 2-dimensional section through the body. The reasons for this inability are multifold. First, CT is subject to the laws of x-ray quantum physics resulting in noise in all CT images. Moreover, all current CT x-ray systems generate a spectrum of energies. Also, CT scanners use detectors of finite dimension, as are the x-ray focal spots; reconstruct images from a finite number of samples distributed over a finite number of views; and acquire the data for each reconstruction over a finite period.