BUSHBERG - The Essential Physics for Medical Imaging

The frst edition of this text was written in 1993, and the second edition followed in 2002. This third edition, coming almost 10 years after the second edition, reflects the considerable changes that have occurred in medical imaging over the past decade. While the “digitization” of medical images outside of nuclear medicine began in earnest between the publication of the frst and second editions, the transformation of medical imaging to an all-digital environment is largely complete at the time of this writing. Recognizing this, we have substantially reduced the treatment of analog modalities in this edition, including only a short discussion on screen-flm radiography and mammography, for example. Because the picture archiving and communication system (PACS) is now a concrete reality for virtually all radiological image interpretation, and because of the increasing integration between the radiology information systems (RISs), the PACS, and the electronic medical record (EMR), the informatics section has been expanded considerably. There is more to know now than 10 years ago, so we reduced some of the detail that existed in previous editions that may be considered nonessential today. Detailed discussions of x-ray tube heating and cooling charts, three-phase x-ray generator circuits, and CT generations have been shortened or eliminated. The cumulative radiation dose to the population of the United States from medical imaging has increased about sixfold since 1980, and the use of unacceptably large radiation doses for imaging patients, including children, has been reported. In recent years, radiation dose from medical imaging and radiation therapy has become the focus of much media attention, with a number of radiologists, radiobiologists, and medical physicists testifying before the FDA and the U.S. Congress regarding the use of radiation in imaging and radiation therapy. The media attention has given rise to heightened interest of patients and regulatory agencies in the topics of reporting and optimizing radiation dose as well as limiting its potentially harmful biological effects. In this edition, we have added an additional chapter devoted to the topic of x-ray dose and substantially expanded the chapters on radiation biology and radiation protection. The current International Commission on Radiological Protection system of estimating the potential detriment (harm) to an irradiated population; the calculation of effective dose and its appropriate use; as well as the most recent National Academy of Sciences Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation (BEIR VII) report recommended approach of computing radiation risk to a specifc individual are discussed in several chapters. Our publisher has indicated that the second edition was used by increasing numbers of graduate students in medical imaging programs. While the target audience of this text is still radiologists-in-training, we have added appendices and other sections with more mathematical rigor than in past editions to increase relevance to scientistsin-training. The goal of providing physicians a text that describes image science and the radiological modalities in plain English remains, but this third edition contains an appendix on Fourier transforms and convolution, and Chapter 4 covers basic image science with some optional mathematics for graduate student readers and for radiologists with calculus-based undergraduate degrees.

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