RADIOLOGICAL EQUIPMENT
UNIT 1- MEDICAL X-RAY EQUIPMENT
TOPIC: NATURE OF X-RAYS, X-RAY ABSORPTION AND TISSUE CONTRACTION
Objective:
To study the nature of x-rays, X-ray absorption and tissue contraction.
Description:
1. What is the X- ray?
X-rays are a type of electromagnetic radiation, just like visible light.
An x-ray machine sends individual x-ray particles through the body.
The images are recorded on a computer or film.
Structures that are dense (such as bone) will block most of the x-ray particles, and will
appear white.
2. What are the properties of an X-ray?
X-rays also have these properties:
They have a very short wavelength (about the same size as the diameter of an atom.
They cause ionization (adding or removing electrons in atoms and molecules)
They affect photographic film in the same way as visible light (turning it black)
They are absorbed (stopped) by metal and bone.
3. What are soft x rays?
An X-ray microscope uses electromagnetic radiation in the soft X-ray band to produce
images of very small objects. Unlike visible light, X-rays do not reflect or refract easily, and
they are invisible to the human eye.
4. X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) :
What is XAS?
XAS, or X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy, is a broadly used method to investigate
atomic local structure as well as electronic states. Very generally, an X-ray strikes an
atom and excites a core electron that can either be promoted to an unoccupied level,
or ejected from the atom.
When the x-rays hit a sample, the oscillating electric field of the electromagnetic radiation
interacts with the electrons bound in an atom. Either the radiation will be scattered by these
electrons or absorbed and excite the electrons.
X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) is a widely used technique for determining the
local geometric and/or electronic structure of matter.
The experiment is usually performed at synchrotron radiation sources, which provide
intense and tunable X-ray beams.
Samples can be in the gas-phase, solution, or condensed matter (i.e. solids).
XAS data is obtained by tuning the photon energy using a crystalline monochromator
to a range where core electrons can be excited (0.1-100 keV photon energy).
The "name" of the edge depends upon which core electron is excited: the principal
quantum numbers n = 1, 2, and 3, correspond to the K-, L-, and M-edges,
respectively.
For instance, excitation of a 1s electron occurs at the K-edge, while excitation of a 2s
or 2p electron occurs at an L-edge (Figure 1)
The fundamental processes which contribute to XANES spectra: 1) photoabsorption of an x-
ray into a core level followed by photoelectron emission, followed by either 2) (left) filling of
the core hole by an electron in another level, accompanied by fluorescence; or (right) filling
of the core hole by an electron in another level followed by emission of an Auger electron.
XAS data is obtained by tuning the photon energy using a crystalline monochromator to a
range where core electrons can be excited (0.1-100 keV photon energy). There are three main
region found on a spectrum generated by XAS data in the figure below:
1. The "absorption threshold" determined by the transition to the lowest unoccupied
states:
a) The states at the Fermi energy in metals giving a "rising edge" with an arc tangent
shape;
b) The bound core excitation in insulators with a Lorentzian line-shape (they occur in
a pre-edge region at energies lower than the transitions to the lowest unoccupied
level);
2. The X-ray Absorption Near-Edge Structure XANES introduced in 1980 and later in
1983 called also NEXAFS (Near-edge X-ray Absorption Fine Structure) which are
dominated by core transitions to quasi bound states (multiple scattering resonances)
for photoelectrons with kinetic energy in the range from 10 to 150 eV above the
chemical potential, called "shape resonances" in molecular spectra since they are due
to final states of short life-time degenerate with the continuum with the Fano line-
shape. In this range multi-electron excitations and many-body final states in strongly
correlated systems are relevant;
3. In the high kinetic energy range of the photoelectron the scattering cross-section with
neighbor atoms is weak and the absorption spectra are dominated by EXAFS
(Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure) where the scattering of the ejected
photoelectron off neighboring atoms can be approximated by single scattering events.
4. After it was shown in 1985 that multiple scattering theory can interpret both XANES
and EXAFS the experimental analysis focusing on both regions is called XAFS.
4. Tissue Contrast
Tissue densities
Key points
An X-ray image is a map of X-ray attenuation
Attenuation of X-rays is variable depending on density and thickness of tissues
Describing X-ray abnormalities in terms of density may help in determining the tissue
involved
A radiographic image is composed of a 'map' of X-rays that have either passed freely through
the body or have been variably attenuated (absorbed or scattered) by anatomical structures.
The denser the tissues, the more X-rays are attenuated. For example, X-rays are attenuated
more by bone than by lung tissue.
TISSUE CONTRAST:
If all different types of tissue stopped x-rays in the same way, then we would have no
picture - just a gray blob on our screen. The difference in x-ray penetration between
different tissues represents the contrast in the image, i.e. how easily we can tell
different objects apart. So why do different tissues stop x-rays differently?
Photoelectric absorption: The probability of photoelectric absorption is proportional
to (Z/E)3. The concept of the k-edge, where Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize for
explaining how photoelectric events require a minimum amount of energy it turns out
that this is also the most likely energy for those events to occur.
Higher energy photons are much less likely to cause photoelectric events. The k-edge
represents the energy needed to eject a K-shell electron (the innermost and most
strongly bound electrons). Outer shell electrons have absorption edges but these are
much too low energy to be relevant.
In soft tissues, the dominant elements (e.g. C, H, O, and N) have very low K-edges, in
the range of a few keV.
While these elements do contribute to the photoelectric effect and attenuate low
energy x-rays, there is no relevant k-edge with its substantial change in attenuation.
However, the elements iodine and barium have K-edges around 30-40 keV, right in
the middle of the x-ray beam spectrum. Thus, soft tissues with even a small amount of
iodine will have a much stronger x-ray stopping power than those without.
Absorption due to Compton scattering is nearly independent of the X-ray
energy.
It does depend on the material (specifically, the electron density) but is still
much less than the photoelectric absorption in diagnostic x-ray imaging.
Compton scattering is responsible for the right-hand tail in the above graph.
Note that it also creates scatter photons that may hit the image detector and
contribute to background / noise (because they are scattered at different
angles, we do not know where they initially came from).
Thus, the main contribution to differences in x-ray attenuation in diagnostic
imaging is photoelectric absorption.
You can see from this graph, though, that these differences are much more
apparent at low energies. This is why lowering kV improves image contrast
(with a trade-off of increased dose).
The presences of materials with high k-edges such as iodine or barium
improve the contrast at higher kV, but contrast is still better at lower kV.
