A Comprehensive Guide to Radiographic Sciences and Technology. Euclid Seeram

8 covers the essential technical aspects of CT, at a depth needed for entry‐to‐practice, including the basic physics and technology of CT. Specifically, the major technical system components of MSCT are described. Furthermore, image processing, image quality, and radiation dose and radiation protection are described. Chapter 9 provides a discussion of quality control and focusses on the performance criteria/tolerance limits for common QC tests for radiography, fluoroscopy, and CT tests that are in the domain of the technologist. Finally, the chapter reviews the elements of repeat image analysis. The nature of imaging informatics including major topics as picture archiving and communication systems (PACS), and specific imaging topics such as enterprise imaging, cloud computing, Big Data, and artificial intelligence, and its subsets, machine learning and deep learning, are reviewed in Chapter 10. Finally, Section 6 covers topics in radiation protection. In particular, while Chapter 11 provides a discussion of basic concepts of radiobiology, Chapter 12 deals with the technical dose factors in radiography, fluoroscopy, and CT. Finally, the book concludes with Chapter 13, which addresses the essential principles of radiation protection, focusing on topics such as a rationale for radiation protection, objectives of radiation protection, radiation protection philosophy of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), radiation quantities and units, personnel dosimetry, optimization of radiation protection, and the current state of gonadal shielding.

      Enjoy the pages that follow and remember – your patients will benefit from your wisdom.

      Euclid Seeram, PhD., MSc., BSc., FCAMRT British Columbia, Canada

      Acknowledgments

      It is always a pleasure to acknowledge the contributions of experts in the field of radiographic sciences including radiologic physics, equipment, image quality, quality control, radiobiology and radiation protection from whom I have learned a great deal that allows me to write this book.

      First, I am indeed grateful to all those who have dedicated their energies in providing several comprehensive volumes on radiologic physics and instrumentation for the radiologic community. I would like to acknowledge the notable medical physicist, Dr. Stewart Bushong ScD, FAAPM, FACR and experimental radiobiologist, Dr. Elizabeth Travis, PhD. I have learned a great deal on radiologic science from the works of Dr. Bushong, a professor of radiologic science in the Department of Radiology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX. In addition, I have gained further insight into the nature, scope, and depth of radiobiology and particularly its significance in radiology, from Dr. Travis, a researcher in the Department of Experimental Radiotherapy, University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX.

      Secondly, I am grateful to physicist, Dr. Hans Swan, PhD and digital radiography expert, Dr. Rob Davidson, PhD, who served as my primary supervisors for my PhD dissertation entitled Optimization of the Exposure Indicator of a Computed Radiography Imaging System as a Radiation Dose Management Strategy. Furthermore, Dr. Stewart Bushong served as an external examiner for my PhD dissertation. Additionally, two other notable medical physicists from whom I have learned my digital radiography imaging physics and technology are Dr. Charles Willis, PhD (University of Texas; MD Anderson Cancer Center‐Retired) and Dr. Anthony Seibert, PhD (University of California at Davis). Dr. Seibert's notable textbook on The Essential Physics of Medical Imaging has educated me in the core principles of medical imaging physics. Thanks to you all.

      I must acknowledge all others, such as the authors whose papers I have cited and referenced in this book, thank you for your significant contributions to radiographic sciences knowledge base. Additionally, I would like to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Perry Sprawls, PhD, FACR, FAAPM, FIOMP, Distinguished Emeritus Professor, Emory University, Director, Sprawls Educational Foundation, http://www.sprawls.org, Co‐Director, College on Medical Physics, ICTP, Trieste, Italy, and Co‐Editor, Medical Physics International, http://www.mpijournal.org/.

      Dr. Sprawls has always supported my writing and I appreciate his free resources on the World Wide Web (www) from which students, technologists, and educators alike can benefit. I must also mention Dr. Anthony Wolbarst, PhD, Medical Physics Department, University of Kentucky (Retired).

Another individual to whom I owe a good deal of thanks is Valentina Al Hamouche, MRT(R), MSc, who is the CEO/Founder VCA Education Solutions for Health Professionals http://www.VCAeducation.ca. Valentina has provided me with opportunities to provide radiographic sciences and CT physics and Instrumentation in‐house lectures and webinars to further educate technologists and students across Canada and internationally. Thanks Valentina.

      I must acknowledge James Watson, Commissioning Editor, Wiley, Oxford, UK, who understood and evaluated the need for this book. Additionally, I am grateful to Anupama Sreekanth, former project editor and current managing editor Anne Hunt at Wiley, for the advice and support you both provided to me during the writing stage of this book. Furthermore, I appreciate the work of Sandeep Kumar, Content Refinement Specialist at Wiley, who has done an excellent job in bringing this manuscript to fruition.

      Finally, I am very grateful for the warm and wonderful support of my family: my lovely wife, Trish, a very wise and caring person; and my very smart son, David, a very special young man and the best Dad in the universe. Thank you both for your unending love, support, and encouragement.

      Last, but not least, I want to express my gratitude to all the students in my radiographic sciences classes – your questions have provided me with a further insight into teaching this important subject. Thank you.

SECTION 1 Introduction

1 Radiographic sciences and technology: an overview

       RADIOGRAPHIC IMAGING SYSTEMS: MAJOR MODALITIES AND COMPONENTS

       RADIOGRAPHIC PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY

       Essential physics of diagnostic imaging

       Digital radiographic imaging modalities

       Radiographic exposure technique

       Image quality considerations

       Computed tomography – physics and instrumentation

       Quality control

       Imaging informatics at a glance

       RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSE OPTIMIZATION