A suggested theory of the conventional tomographic imaging process

An attempt is made to re-examine the well established theoretical basis of conventional tomography in the light of more detailed techniques being applied elsewhere in image analysis. Transfer function theory has been used to quantify the amount of edge detail reproduced by this process and the information in a tomogram is investigated in terms of edge detail associated with well resolved (unblurred) detail and also that associated with particular anatomical layers within the tomographed object, the theory has been used to define a cut plane thickness. A variety of different tube movements have been considered and calculated values of cut plane thickness are compared with those predicted by a simple geometric model. Besides the blurring associated with the tube movement the effect of x-ray focal spot, film-screen combination and also visual response of the observer have been included and their importance in the definition of cut plane thickness highlighted. One advantage of this approach appears to be the facility to quantify the performance of different tomographic tube movements and highlight the role of tomographic detail reproduced from body sections well removed from the cut plane.