Solid‐state fluoroscopic imager for high‐resolution angiography: Physical characteristics of an 8 cm×8 cm experimental prototype

Abstract

In this paper, the performance of an 8 cm x 8 cm three-side buttable charge-coupled device (CCD)-based imager specially designed for high-resolution fluoroscopy and operating in fluoroscopic (30 frames/second) mode is presented in terms of the presampling modulation transfer function (MTF), noise power spectrum (NPS), and detective quantum efficiency (DQE). The 8 cm x 8 cm CCD imager is coupled to a 450 microm thick CsI:Tl scintillator by nondemagnifying (straight, 1:1) fiberoptics. The CCD imager has a fundamental pixel pitch of 39 microm and incorporates an optically opaque interline (data) channel. The CCD imager was operated at 156 microm pixel pitch by binning 4 x 4 adjacent pixels prior to readout. The fluoroscopic image lag was measured and accounted for in the DQE estimate to provide lag-corrected DQE. The measured limiting spatial resolution at 10% presampling MTF with the imager operated at 156 microm pixel pitch (Nyquist sampling limit: 3.21 cy/mm) was 3.6 cy/mm. In the pulsed fluoroscopic mode, the first-frame image lag was less than 0.9%. The lag-corrected DQE(0) of approximately 0.62 was achieved even at a low fluoroscopic exposure rate of 1 microR/frame. Grid phantom measurements indicate no appreciable distortion. Results from DQE and image lag measurements at fluoroscopic exposure rates combined with the high spatial resolution observed from the MTF suggest that this type of imager or its variants may be a potential candidate for high-resolution neuro-interventional imaging, cardiovascular imaging, pediatric angiography, and small animal imaging. Since the CCD is three-side buttable, four such CCD modules can be joined to form a 2 x 2 matrix providing a field of view of 16 cm x 16 cm.

Solid‐state fluoroscopic imager for high‐resolution angiography: Parallel‐cascaded linear systems analysis

“…The signal and NPS represented in the above equations are the presampling signal and the presampling NPS. However, DQE measurements reported in the literature 5,[43][44][45][46][47][48] for digital imaging ͑sampled͒ systems are based either on the presampling MTF or on the expectation MTF computed from the presampling MTF, and the aliased NPS. The aliased NPS represented as W 7 (u,v) is expressed as 49,50…”

Modeling the Performance Characteristics of Computed Radiography (CR) Systems

“…Orthogonal x-ray incidence can be assumed when the source to PSP plate distance is sufficiently large and a small region-of-interest (ROI) surrounding the central x-ray beam is used for analysis. In order to reduce the effect of x-ray scatter during experimental measurements, the x-ray beam filtration material is typically placed closed to the x-ray source and collimated to a small ROI surrounding the central x-ray beam [54, 55]. Although this technique reduces the x-ray scatter influence in empirical studies, the assumption of no x-ray scatter is typically made in estimating system MTF and DQE performance in modeling studies [35–37].…”

Endovascular image‐guided interventions (EIGIs)

“…For example, large area CCDs have been considered. 37 Methods for reducing the effect of instrumentation noise on FPDs have been proposed; one such proposal being to provide inherently increased signal using a direct x-ray converter material having avalanche gain. 38 For indirect FPDs, methods include using a-Se avalanche photoconductors in place of a-Si photodiodes 39,40 and placing an amplifier at each pixel of the FPD.…”