title: Development of a quality assurance protocol for peripheral subtraction imaging applications.
abstract: Peripheral subtraction scanning is used to trace the blood vessels of upper and lower extremities. In some modern C-arm fluoroscopy systems this function is performed automatically. In this mode the system is programmed to advance and stop in a series of steps taking a mask image at each point. The system then repeats each step after the contrast agent has been injected, and produces a DSA image at each point. Current radiographic quality assurance protocols do not address this feature. This note reviews methods of measuring system vibration while images are being acquired in automated peripheral stepping. The effect on image quality pre- and post-image processing is assessed. Results show that peripheral stepping DSA does not provide the same degree of image quality as static DSA. In examining static test objects, the major cause of the reduction in image quality is misregistration due to vibration of the image intensifier during imaging.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physics and Bioengineering, St James's Hospital, Dublin, Republic of Ireland.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Walsh
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: O'Hare
mesh_terms: D003287:Contrast Media / Q000494:pharmacology; D005471:Fluoroscopy / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011786:Quality Control; D012984:Software
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media