Kala McCune

Notebook #6

Histogram- This is a graphical representation of the optimal densities on an image. Values toward
the left of the histogram represent the blacks and the values toward the right represent the whites.

LUT- Used to adjust the contrast levels on an image. It is a reference that will help evaluate the
raw information and make corrections to the luminescence.

Exposure indicator- These are the minimum and maximum exposure numbers that are
technically correct to a specific x-ray machine. If the number is too high it can either mean the
image was overexposed or underexposed.

Exposure latitude- This is the range of exposure values the image detector is able to produce.

Automatic rescaling- Basically after an exposure is taken it gets automatically reprocessed using
the uniform density and contrast.

Spatial resolution- This refers to the amount of detail that is on an image. The thinner the
phosphor level, the higher the resolution. Spatial resolution on film screen is better than it is on
PSP, but its hard to tell because the higher amount of bit depth (number of shades of gray)
makes it hard to tell a difference.

Dynamic range- The ability to respond to varying levels of exposure.

Contrast level- This is simply the differences between the black on the image and the whites. The
higher the contrast the more black and whites there are, and the less grays there are.

Window width- This is something that is completed after the image has been taken. It is used to
control the ratio of blacks and whites. The higher the level is, the darker the image will be.

Window level- This is something that is done after the image has already been taken. The
radiographer can window an image controlling how bright and dark the screen image is

Shuttering- This is also something that is done after the image has been taken. The radiographer
just cuts out the whites around the edges of the image. This eliminates the veil glare so that it is
better for the radiologists to look at.

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Detective quantum efficiency- This represents the efficiency of the light collection and the signal
created in the chip. It demonstrates how well the detector converts incident x-ray energy into an
image signal. Systems that have a higher DQE can produce better quality images with less dose.

SNR- This stands for signal to noise ratio and that just basically means how much noise is there
on an image compared to the amount of signal (good picture information).
MTF- This is the ability of a system to record available spatial frequencies. The more light
spread, the lower the MTF will be.

During an exposure, the beam interacts with the IR and hits the center of the capture
element. It then goes to the TFT which has switches and capacitators, which open and send the
electronic signal to the ADC. The capacitators are what store the electronic signal. In the ADC
the electronic signals are given a numerical value. When the image is being processed, image
sampling occurs where the image location and the size of the pixel are determined and a value is
placed on each pixel. After that a histogram of the values is created. The image is reprocessed
using the perfect image for each body part and made to look more like it.

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