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Medical Imaging Systems

By
Dr. Waleed M. AL-Talabi

Sana’a Community College

Biomedical Engineering 4th Level
2021-2022

X-Ray Computed
Tomography
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Agenda
• Introduction

• The basics

• CT System Components

• CT Machine

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Introduction
Computed tomography (CT) or (Computerized
Axial Tomography CAT) is an examination that
uses X-ray and computer to obtain a cross-
sectional image of the human body.
It is a medical imaging method employing
tomography.
• Tomography is a term that refers to the ability to
view an anatomic section or slice through the
body.

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Introduction
• 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.

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Introduction
In CT scanning, an electronic device called a
"detector array" absorbs the penetrated X-rays,
measures the X-ray amount, and transmits the
data to a computer system.

Detector Array

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Introduction
A sophisticated computer system, in turn,
calculates and analyzes data from each detector in
each level, and finally reconstructs multiple, two-
dimensional, cross-sectional images.

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Introduction
• 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.

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The Basics

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The Basics

• The x-rays are produced in a part of the ring and

the ring is able to rotate around the patient.
• The target ring contains an array of detectors and
is internally cooled so the to reduce electronic
noise and to cool the anode.
• The patient is put into the system using a precise
high speed couch.

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The Basics
• The x-ray tube and detectors rotate around the
patient and the couch moves into the machine.
• This produces a helical sweep pattern around
the patient.
• The patient opening is about 70cm in diameter.
• The data acquired by the detectors with each
slice is electronically stored and are
mathematically manipulated to compute a cross
sectional slice of the body.

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The Basics
• Three dimensional information can be obtained
by comparing slices taken at different points
along the body.
• Or the computer can create a 3D image by
stacking together slices.
• As the detector rotates around many cross
sectional images are taken and after one
complete orbit the couch moves forward
incrementally.

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The Basics
Pixel (picture element) a 2D
square shade of gray.
Voxel (volume element) a 3D
volume of gray.
 This is a result of a computer
averaging of the attenuation
coefficients across a small
volume of material.
 This gives depth information.
 Each voxel is about 1mm on a
side and is as thick as 2 – 10mm
depending on the depth of the
scanning x-ray beam.

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The Basics

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The Basics
• The detectors see the forward projected x-rays
and measure the intensity given that the x-ray
intensity without the body present is known.
• The intensity Ni written as sum of attenuation
coefficients along a given x-ray path.
• This generates a shade of gray and a number
associated with this shade.
• Then the detector changes angles and the
process repeats.

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The Basics
• The images are reconstructed by a method
called back projection, or tracing backwards
along the x-rays forward path to reconstruct the
image and calculating the absorption due to a
localized region.
• This a mathematically tedious process, but is
handled easily with computers.

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The Basics
The top scan we see that there are lighter and darker regions somewhere in it, but
we don't know whether the light/dark regions is high, low, or in the middle.
In other words, we know where the light region is horizontally but not vertically.
So by stretching it out we're kind of saying, "We don't
know where the light spot is vertically, so for now give
it all vertical values!”
Now do a vertical scan and now we've taken the
light/dark spots whose location we know vertically and
"smeared" it out across all horizontal positions.
You can see where the light areas cross and it gets
even more light there and we can start to form an
image.
By "adding" more shadows is that the medium light
lines would eventually disappear and we’d have a
complete image.

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The Basics
CT numbers (or Hounsfield units) represent the percent
difference between the x-ray attenuation coefficient for a
voxel and that of water multiplied by 1000.
• The HU scale is related to the linear attenuation
coefficient of a material, where water is defined with a
HU of 0 and air with a HU of -1000.
• Materials are then assigned a HU value based on the
following formula:
𝝁𝒙 − 𝝁𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓
𝑯𝑼 = 𝟏𝟎𝟎𝟎 ×
𝝁𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓 − 𝝁𝒂𝒊𝒓
Where: 𝝁𝒙 is the linear attenuation coefficient of the material, 𝝁𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓 and 𝝁𝒂𝒊𝒓 are the linear
attenuation coefficients of water and air, respectively.

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The Basics

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CT System Components
All computer tomography systems consist of the
following four major sub-systems:
Scanning system: takes suitable readings for a picture to
be reconstructed, and includes X-ray source and detectors.
Processing unit: converts these readings into intelligible
picture information.
Viewing part: presents this information in visual form and
includes other manipulative aids to assist diagnosis.
Storage unit: enables the information to be stored for
subsequent analysis.

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CT System Components
First Generation (Parallel Beam Geometry):
In the basic scanning process, a collimated X-ray beam
passes through the body and its attenuation is detected
by a sensor that moves on a gantry along with the X-ray
tube.

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CT System Components
Second Generation (Fan Beam, Multiple
Detectors):
An improved version of the traverse index arrangement
consists in using a bank of detectors and a fan beam of
X-rays.

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CT System Components
Third Generation: (Fan Beam, Rotating Detectors):
The main obstacle for a further increase in speed with the
conventional computer tomographs arises from the
mechanically unfavorable multiple alterations between the
translational and rotational movement of the measuring
system.

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CT System Components
Fourth Generation: (Fan Beam, Fixed Detectors)
In order to overcome the difficulties encountered in the
rotating detectors configuration, rotational machines
have been designed in which only the X-ray source
rotates within a full circle of stationary detectors
arranged around the patient.
The system employs as many as 2000 detectors to
maintain a good spatial resolution.
The individual detectors are lined up practically without
gaps, so that the radiation which has penetrated the
patient is optimally used.

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CT System Components

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CT System Components
Fifth Generation: (Scanning Electron Beam)
The 0.7 to 1 second time resolution limit of mechanical
CT scanners makes phase-resolution imaging of the
beating heart possible only through manipulations
involving ECG triggering.
The acquisition of all the cardiac phases within a single
cardiac cycle can only be realized using a data
acquisition system which does not contain any moving
mechanical parts.
One such system is the Electron Beam Tomography
(EBT) scanner.

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CT System Components
Basically, the electron beam computed tomography differs
from conventional CT in terms of speed and the method of
generating the X-ray.

Schematic of ultrafast electron beam CT scanner

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CT Machine

Prototype CT scanner

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CT Machine

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CT Machine

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CT Machine
• The CT gantry, which looks like a ‘doughnut’,
contains X-ray tube, detection system and other
associated mechanism.
• The patient support table allows for insertion of
the patient into the doughnut hole (bore), which
is approximately 60–72 cm in diameter.
• Most gantries can be tilted + 20 degree in order
to obtain oblique slices.
• A narrow, visible light field is used to indicate
where the CT slice will be taken.

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CT Machine
• An intercom system is generally available near
the inside of the gantry opening to enable verbal
communication with the patient.
• The top of the table on which the patient is made
to lie is made of carbon fiber for maximum
strength and radio transparency, and is
supported by a sturdy pedestal.
• The table provides longitudinal movement over a
range of 150 cm, which enables uninterrupted
scanning without repositioning the patient.

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Emergency
CT Machine
Patient Guide Lights
X-ray Exposure
Indicator Light
Stop Buttons Sagittal Laser
Emergency
ECG Alignment Light Stop Buttons
Gating Microphone
Monitor Gantry Gantry
Control Control
Panels Panels

Gantry Aperture
External Laser (720mm diameter) External Laser
Alignment Lights Alignment Lights

Patient
Couch

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CT Machine
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

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Line Noise Introduction

X-ray Tube X-ray Tube
Heat
Filter
Exchanger
(Oil
Cooler)
Power Unit
(AC to DC) Filters, Collimator, and
Reference Detector
High
Internal
Voltage
Projector
High Voltage Generator
Generator (0-75kv)
Slip Rings
(75-150 kv)

Detector
Detectors
Temperature
Control Direct Drive
Data Gantry Motor
Rotation
Acquisition
Control Unit
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CT Machine
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
11. Detector Temperature Control
12. High Voltage Generator (75-150 kv)
13. Power Unit (AC to DC)
14. Line Noise Filter

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CT Machine
• The x-ray tube in a CT scanner is designed to
produce a fan shaped beam of x-rays that is
approximately as wide as your body.
• Tissue attenuation is measured over a large
region from one position of the x-ray tube.
• The x-ray tube on a CT scanner is more heavy
duty than tubes used for standard film imaging
since the unit rotates.

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CT Machine
• Opposite the patient is an array of detectors that
measure the intensity of the x-ray beam at points
laterally across the patients body.
• Modern CT scanners use solid state detectors
that have very high efficiency at the low energy
of x-rays produced by CT scanners.

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Spiral Geometry Interconnect

Wiring

 X-ray tube rotates continuously around patient. Tube

 Patient continuously transported through gantry.
 No physical wiring between gantry & x-ray tube
 Requires “Slip Ring” technology

Slip Detector
Rings

What’s a Slip Ring?

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Slip Rings
• Electrical connections made by stationary brushes pressing
against rotating circular conductor
• Similar to electric motor / generator design

X-Ray Generator Configurations with

Slip Ring Technology
Problem:
Supply high voltage to a continually rotating x-ray tube?
Options:
Op1:
Stationary Generator & Transformer
X-ray tube rotate in gantry
Op2:
Stationary Generator
Transformer & x-ray tube rotate in gantry
Op3:
Generator, transformer & tube rotate in gantry
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Option 1: Stationary High Voltage

Transformer
Incoming Primary Secondary
AC Power Voltage Voltage
X-Ray High Voltage X-Ray
Generator Transformer Tube

Option 1: Stationary High Voltage

Transformer
Line Voltage Generator Secondary
Voltage
Primary Voltage
Tube
HV
Transformer

High voltage must pass

through slip rings
Slip Detector
Rings
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Option 2: Rotating High Voltage

Transformer
Incoming Primary Secondary
AC Power Voltage Voltage
X-Ray High Voltage X-Ray
Generator Transformer Tube

Option 2: Rotating High Voltage

Transformer
Line Voltage Generator
Primary
Voltage HV Transformer

Low voltage must pass

through slip rings Tube

Slip Detector
Rings
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Option 3: Rotating Generator

Incoming Primary Secondary
AC Power Voltage Voltage
X-Ray High Voltage X-Ray
Generator Transformer Tube

Option 3: Rotating Generator

Line
Voltage Generator

Low line voltage must Tube

pass through slip rings Slip
Rings HV Transformer
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Spiral CT Advantages
• Faster scan times
minimal interscan delays
no need to stop / reverse direction of rotation
Slip rings solve problem of cabling to rotating
equipment
• Continuous acquisition protocols possible

Medical Imaging Systems

Thank You

Questions
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Medical Imaging Systems