Impacts of phantom off-center positioning on CT numbers and dose index CTDIv: An evaluation of two CT scanners from GE

The purpose of this work is to evaluate the impacts of body off-center positioning on CT numbers and dose index CTDIv of two scanners from GE. HD750 and APEX scanners were used to acquire a PBU60 phantom of Kagaku and a 062M phantom of CIRS respectively. CT images were acquired at various off-center positions under automatic tube current modulation using various peak voltages. CTDIv were recorded for each of the acquisitions. An abdomen section of the PBU60 phantom was used for CT number analysis and tissue inserts of the 062M phantom were filled with water balloons to mimic the human abdomen. CT numbers of central regions of interests were averaged using the Fiji software. As phantoms were lifted above the iso-center, both CTDIv and CT numbers were increased for the HD750 scanner whilst they were approximately constant for the APEX scanner. The measured sizes of anterior-posterior projection images were also increased for both scanners whilst the sizes of lateral projection images were increased for the HD750 scanner but decreased for the APEX scanner. Off-center correction algorithms were implemented in the APEX scanner. Matching the X-ray projection center with the system’s iso-center could improve the accuracy of CT imaging.