Intermediate Physics for Medicine and Biology: Significant Advances in Computed Tomography

The journal Medical Physics recently published a virtual issue about “Significant Advances in Computed Tomography.” It’s accessible to all for free and is a wonderful resource for an instructor teaching a class based on Intermediate Physics for Medicine and Biology. Marc Kachelrieß, curator of the virtual issue, writes

It is now 40 years since Allan M. Cormack and Godfrey N. Hounsfield were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the development of computer assisted tomography, today known as computed tomography or simply as CT. Since its introduction in 1972 CT has become the most widespread and the most important tomographic medical imaging modality.

This inaugural virtual issue of the journal Medical Physics was created in honor of the 40^th anniversary of Cormack and Hounsfield’s 1979 Nobel Prize. It is a compilation of the most significant original scientific papers on advances in CT that have been published in our journal. These papers have been selected among the most cited CT articles published in our journal so far, with a focus on clinical relevance. CAD [coronary artery disease] papers were not considered. If there were two or more papers on a similar topic that met all selection criteria the one that was published first was chosen.

This compilation reflects many important CT developments starting with Hounsfield’s Nobel award address on “Computed Medical Imaging” [cited in IPMB]. Some of the topics that are covered include basic image reconstruction technologies, spiral CT, cardiac CT, CBCT [cone beam CT], tube current modulation, 4D respiratory CT, dual-source dual-energy CT, and new technologies such as iterative image reconstruction as well as the future technology of photon counting detector CT.

Thus, this virtual issue provides the reader with an opportunity to reflect on the historical developments of CT and also to gain insights into the hot CT topics of today and of the near future.

Table of Contents:

“Computed Medical Imaging” by Godfrey N. Hounsfield
“Optimal Short Scan Convolution Reconstruction for Fan Beam CT” by Dennis L. Parker
“Fast Calculation of the Exact Radiological Path for a Three-Dimensional CT Array” by Robert L. Siddon
“Physical Performance Characteristics of Spiral CT Scanning” by Willi A. Kalender and Arkadiusz Polacin
“Three‐Dimensional Computed Tomographic Reconstruction Using a C-Arm Mounted XRII: Correction of Image Intensifier Distortion” by Rebecca Fahrig, Michel Moreau, and David Wayne Holdsworth
“Electrocardiogram-Correlated Image Reconstruction from Subsecond Spiral Computed Tomography Scans of the Heart” by Marc Kachelriess and Willi A. Kalender
“Performance Evaluation of a Multi-Slice CT System” by Cynthia H. McCollough and Frank E. Zink
“Dose Reduction in CT by Anatomically Adapted Tube Current Modulation. II. Phantom Measurements” by Willi A. Kalender, Heiko Wolf, and Christoph Suess
“Cone-Beam Computed Tomography with a Flat-Panel Imager: Initial Performance Characterization” by David A. Jaffray and Jeff H. Siewerdsen
“Calculation of Effective Dose” by Cynthia H. McCollough and Beth A. Schueler
“Cone-Beam Volume CT Breast Imaging: Feasibility Study” by Biao Chen and Ruola Ning
“4D-CT Imaging of a Volume Influenced by Respiratory Motion on Multi-Slice CT” by Tinsu Pan, Ting-Yim Lee, Eike Rietzel, and George T. Y. Chen
“Volume CT with a Flat-Panel Detector on a Mobile, Isocentric C-Arm: Pre-Clinical Investigation in Guidance of Minimally Invasive Surgery” by Jeff H. Siewerdsen, Douglas J. Moseley, Shane Burch, Stuart K. Bisland, Arjan Bogaards, Brian C. Wilson, and David A. Jaffray
“A Three-Dimensional Statistical Approach to Improved Image Quality for Multislice Helical CT” by Jean‐Baptiste Thibault, Ken D. Sauer, Charles A. Bouman, and Jiang Hsieh
“Prior Image Constrained Compressed Sensing (PICCS): A Method to Accurately Reconstruct Dynamic CT Images from Highly Undersampled Projection Data Sets” by Guang‐Hong Chen, Jie Tang, and Shuai Leng
“Improved Dual-Energy Material Discrimination for Dual-Source CT by Means of Additional Spectral Filtration” by Andrew N. Primak, Juan C. Ramirez Giraldo, Xin Liu, Lifeng Yu, and Cynthia H. McCollough
“Dual-Source Spiral CT with Pitch up to 3.2 and 75 ms Temporal Resolution: Image Reconstruction and Assessment of Image Quality” by Thomas G. Flohr, Shuai Leng, Lifeng Yu, Tmas Allmendinger, Herbert Bruder, Martin Petersilka, Christian D. Eusemann, Karl Stierstorfer, Bernhard Schmidt, and Cynthia H. McCollough
“Vision 20/20: Single Photon Counting X-Ray Detectors in Medical Imaging” by Katsuyuki Taguchi and Jan S. Iwanczyk
“Photon-Counting CT for Simultaneous Imaging of Multiple Contrast Agents in the Abdomen: An In Vivo Study” by Rolf Symons, Bernhard Krauss, Pooyan Sahbaee, Tyler E. Cork, Manu N. Lakshmanan, David A. Bluemke, and Amir Pourmorteza

These papers support and expand the discussion of computed tomography in Section 16.8 of Intermediate Physics for Medicine and Biology.

To learn more about this virtual issue, and about the history of computed tomography, listen to two videos by Cynthia McCollough, the president of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine.