ABSTRACT
Within the last decade, improvement to such C-arm systems replaced the XRII with a large-area amorphous-silicon (a-Si) digital flat-panel (FP) detector, providing a linear, wider dynamic range recording device that is free of distortion. When a sufficient number of projection images is acquired, and when the image acquisition geometry is ideal (i.e., no truncation
and a small irradiated volume so as to reduce scatter and cone beam artifact), low-contrast resolution in the order of 5 Hounsfield units (HU) can now be achieved in 3D C-arm CT reconstructions. In addition, robust mechanical designs for the C-arm gantry itself have significantly reduced the minimum image acquisition time, which can now be as low as 4 s. New applications for this 3D imaging system are quickly developing, as clinicians see the benefits to be gained from intraprocedural 3D image information.
