| Region of interest (ROI) fluoroscopic techniques have the potential for improving image quality and greatly reducing radiation dose. The broad goal of this study is to determine the optimal filter material to be used for ROI fluoroscopic procedures using both conventional phosphor screen base and nontraditional semiconductor-based image receptors. The effects of rare earth materials (Sm, Gd, and Dy), conventional filters (Cu, Sn, and Pb), and a low-Z material (Lucite) as x-ray beam shaping ROI filters were evaluated using a computer simulation to determine their transmission and effect on radiographic image quality for a broad range of thicknesses of contrast media (iodine, barium, calcium, and fat) embedded in Lucite or muscle phantom for both conventional (CsI) and nontraditional (a-Se) image receptors as a function of kVp (40--100 kVp). Selected measurements were also performed to verify the results of the simulation. The preferred filter material should have least variation of transmission with change in kVp, and in combination with a suitable image receptor, it should have no loss (or even increase) in radiographic contrast, contrast-to-noise-ratio (CNR), and figure-of-merit (FOM) in the periphery.; The results indicate that in general the rare earth filters compared to conventional filters have much less variation in transmission, much higher image contrast, higher CNR at all kVp's, and slightly better FOM at high kVp's. Low-Z material requires too thick of a filter for practical purposes. Moreover, all filter materials improve patient entrance skin exposure compared with no filter, however, conventional filters give less entrance exposure than rare earth materials for the same detected signal for all kVp's. Furthermore, a-Se image receptor provides substantially better performance compared to CsI image receptor for barium and iodinated contrast media, especially when the combination of rare earth filter and a-Se image receptor is used. Analytical results of transmission and contrast improvement are compared favorably with experimental values. Finally, summary result tables are given to assist the selection procedure for an appropriate filter material and the corresponding image receptor for various clinical procedures. |
