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Lec3

17-feb-2013

Radiation physics II & Radiation characteristics

Today we will continue talking about physics continuing chapter two in addition to chapter three. Lets make a small revision about x-rays and the structure of the atom. As you know that the atom is made of nucleus and orbiting electrons, and you know from previous lectures that x-ray can result in ionization (ionization means it will interact with the atom and it will force the atom to lose electrons OR it can excite an atom). When electrons come from the cathode and hit the anode we have different interactions with the tungsten target: -interactions with the inner shell electrons will result in X-RAYS - interactions with the outer shell electrons will result in HEAT *99% of kinetic energy will be heat. AGAIN, electrons from cathode will hit inner shells electrons of the target resulting in excitation missing inner electrons (atom unstable) outer shell electrons will fall into inner shell energy will be released in the form of X-rays. We have to differentiate between these interactions at the target and the new interactions that will happen in our body.

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X-rays are considered electromagnetic radiation. It can be considered or treated as WAVES or PHOTONS. *length of wave is inversely proportional to the energy. so X-rays are short waves.

The figure above shows the X-ray Tube which is made of: 1) Leaded-Glass Housing, that prevents X-ray from escaping in all directions. *it is vacuumed and the X-ray will exit the tube through an unleaded window

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2) Cathode (-ve electrode), which consists of a tungsten wire filament (produces electrons when heated) in a cup-shaped holder made of molybdenum (direct the beam across the tube). 3) Anode (+ve electrode), consists of a wafer-thin tungsten plate (focal spot converting bombarding electrons into X-ray photons) embedded in a solid copper rod (dissipate the heat away from tungsten target).

Types of X-rays

- We have two main types: *General Radiation (bremsstrahlung or braking radiation) *Characteristic Radiation Both of them happen due to interactions of electrons within the target.

1) General Radiation:
-This is the tungsten atom in the anode, and this is the general radiation, we have electron from the cathode and now the electron changed its direction and decelerated. When the electron passes by the nucleus, it will be affected by the attraction power of the nucleus and will slow down and there will be
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loss of its kinetic energy. Consequently, an X-ray photon of lower

energy results. 70% of X-rays will be produced by this way. Sometimes the electron hits the nucleus itself and it will lose all of its kinetic energy. A high-energy X-ray photon will result. This is other way of general radiation.

2) Characteristic Radiation:
Characteristic means it depends on the shell itself on the atom itself. We have electron from the cathode interacted with an inner shell electron, and will result in displacement and this result in ionization. So now, new electrons will replace this electron and energy will be released as X-rays. These interactions in order to happen in K shell we need at least 70KeV. If want this interaction in L shell it will need less energy. So, only dental X-ray machines operating at 70KeV or more K shell, the characteristic radiation will be resulted.

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Interactions of X-ray Radiation with human body.

Mainly we have 4 interactions(fig 2-22):

1)

No interaction, it will pass through the object leaving it unchanged. It helps making the final image. No tissue or matter interactions.(fig 2-23)

us

2) Completely absorbed(photoelectric absorption) fig (2-24) -When X-ray photon interacts with inner shell electron, it will result in ionization where the inner shell electron absorbs all of the photons kinetic energy and ceases to exit. The ejected electron termed photoelectron and has a negative charge.
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-30% of interactions within our body are photoelectric absorption. - When the atomic number increase, the possibility of this interaction will be increased. - However when increase the energy, photoelectric absorption will be decreased. -there is inverse relationship with the cube of energy. 3) Scattering into or away from the film. Scattered radiations are harmful for the patient and will degrade the image quality. So we need to decrease scattering by many ways. We have to types of scattering. i. Compton scatter (fig 2-25) - Compton happens when X-ray interacts with a loosely bound outer shell electron. It will lead to displacement of that electron. Also it will leads to ionization. - The X-ray photon loses some of its energy and continues in a different direction (scattered photon) at a lower energy level. 7|Page

- The ejected electron is termed Compton electron or Recoiled electron. - We have angle of scatter, when the energy increase the angle will be increased because the more the forward the scatter will be. - Compton scatters accounts for 62% of the scatter.

ii.

Coherent scatter (fig 2-

26) - In this scattering there will be interaction of a lower energy Xray photon with an outer shell electron. - No change in speed or

energy or ionization (unmodified scatter)

- Only change in direction. - Accounts for 8% of the interactions of matter. Scattered radiation whether onto or away from the film are harmful for the patient and will degrade the image quality. So we need to decrease scattering. In MRI we use radio waves; they are short energy waves, that will not result in ionization.

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 Definitions of X-ray:
1) Primary Radiation: the main radiation coming from the target. However because we use filters and we use collimators only part of primary beams reach us. This is called useful beam.

2) Secondary Radiation: X-rays generated in the patient when the primary beam interacts with matter. It is less penetrating than primary. Usually the beam when pass through the body will become harder because more photon energy will be removed. 3) Scatter Radiation: it is a form of secondary radiation that has been deflected from its path when it interacted with patient tissues. It leads to loss of image quality. Its detrimental to both the patient and the radiographer. We use something called Grid to decrease the scatter. We put this grid between the patient and the film to decrease scattered radiation reaching the film. 4) Stray Radiation: deflection in X-rays direction. New beam of longer wavelength, longer wavelength means less in energy. This happens when hitting a metal heavier than aluminum. 5) Remnant Radiation: radiation remaining from irradiation of the object and reaching the film not absorbed. 6) Soft and Hard Radiation: when we increase the wave voltage we increase the frequency, we decrease the wavelength, we increase the energy and we increase penetration.
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Hard radiations mean it can penetrate more. Usually when X-ray passes through our body it will be hardened without interaction, this is called hardening effect. Also we can make X-ray harder when we increase voltage. Because increasing the voltage increases energy, increasing penetration. Frequency is how many waves passing; the wavelength is the distance between two crests. - Soft radiation is the opposite, low KeV it means long wavelength, means less penetration.

When we need hard radiation and when we need soft radiation? If we have a problem in soft tissue, like stones in salivary glands we decrease the energy of the X-ray, otherwise we will burn the soft tissue. But when we have bone we need more energy to penetrate through bone. So hard used for imaging hard tissues and soft for soft tissues.

Factors affecting the image:

1) Current or Milliamperage: the rate of flow of electrons. 1 ampere = 6*10^18 electrons/sec. In dentistry and Medicine we use Milliampere (1/1000 ampere). Milliampere will affect the quantity and hence the density (degree of darkening of the film). When we increase milliampere it means we are generating more electrons and that means the denser (the darker) the film.
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We need good density in radiograph. When your image is light or dark you must know by yourself what the problem is, it can be due to the power or due to processing. low density .good density .high density

2)Exposure: means milliampere multiplied by seconds. It measures

the quantity of X-ray. The quantity of X-ray is mainly determined by milliampere multiplied by seconds. Also increasing the time will increase the exposure resulting in darker film. 3) Kilo voltage: mainly will affect the quality, the penetrating ability and hence the contrast (ability to differentiate between different shades of grays). When we have only two shades only black and white, it means the higher the contrast. When we have many shades it means the lower the contrast.

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Increasing kilo voltage will decrease the contrast so will increase the shades of grays. >> Please notice that increasing kilo voltage will affect also the quantity of X-ray. And it depends on the square of kilo voltage. If I want to change the quantity of X-rays I will not change kilo voltage, I will change milliampere and time. Because if I changed the kilo voltage it will change the quality also and this is sensitive. Increasing kilo voltage by only 50% is like doubling the time or milliampere. So it is sensitive to play with kilo voltage.

Variations in contrast: (how sharply dark and light areas are

differentiated on a film).

In a high contrast image we have only two shades (white and black). It means the higher the contrast the image is when my ability to differentiate between shades of gray is higher. High contrast is something useful in detecting caries. Low contrast is something useful to detect periodontal problems and the bone.

In general we need good contrast, and good contrast mainly depends on observer.

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So increasing kilo voltage will increase penetration but less contrast because less absorption. When low kilo voltage peak are used (65-70kVp) high contrast film will result. It seems that there is a relation between density and contrast. Why? The density depends on the darkening of the film only when we are taking care of one color in our mind. While in contrast here taking of many shapes of grey, when black is blacker and when white is whiter, this is high contrast but it does not mean this high density. Because factors affecting both are different If we increase the density at one moment we will decrease the contrast, because there are more X-rays, we are burning films and our ability to differentiate between shades of grays will be less, so increasing

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the density will affect the contrast in indirect way.

We said before that hard beam used to examine hard tissue, so the more the dense the tissue the more the exposure needed. E.g. the mandible contain compact and cancellous bone, so we need more energy in the mandible and least in the anterior area because there is thin bone. The thicker the object the more exposure we need, like mandible and maxilla. The mandible is thinner so we need more energy in the maxilla. Molar regions are thicker so we need more energy at molars not like anterior teeth.

Focus to Film distance: Its the distance from the target to the film (target film distance). As we know X-ray will diverge from the source, X-rays will go in straight lines but in divergent pathway. The more the distance from the target to the film is the less the intensity of X-ray. And we use this application in our practice. How? How we can get benefit from this principle? When we go far from the beam it means the intensity is less. Simply if we want to make X-ray for a patient and we dont have a wall lined with lead, you can protect yourself by just going far from the X-ray, because the intensity will be
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decreased. This rule is called Inverse Square Law.

Inverse Square Law: when we double the distance the intensity will decrease by . It means the intensity of radiation is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source of radiation.

This is because the Divergence of the X-ray, it will be distributed over a wider area. This will decrease the intensity.

INTENSITY is the production of quantity and quality. If you

multiply quantity by quality this is called intensity. So if the PID (beam indicating device) is changed from 8inch to 16 inch, we doubled the distance, what will happen to intensity? Intensity will be decreased, it will become . Just follow the rule. *be careful with it in the exam. Intensity it depends on all factors, distance, kilo voltage, milliampere
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and time because as I said Intensity is the quality multiply by quantity.

>> Filtration: it means the absorption of long wavelength of X-ray. It

is done mainly by aluminum filters. Theres something called inherent and something called additional. Total filtration is inherent and additional filtration. Usually X-ray machines need 2.5 total filtration. - Inherent filtration is the normal filtration done by the wall, oil and aperture in the tube metal housing, so the glass wall, the oil and the aperture. All these 3 will result in the absorption of long wavelength xrays, but it is not enough, we have to add aluminum filters; it is called additional filtration. Filters may absorb some of the useful beams so the exposure should be increased.

Half value layer :

It is the thickness of special materials like aluminum, when it is places in the pathway of the X-ray, it will reduce the intensity of the Xray beam up to , aluminum filters are placed in the path of the beam inside the dental X-ray tube head. The more the energy is the more the half value layer. Half value layer is an indication of the penetrating quality of the beam. so it is more useful to us using Half value layer than Kilo voltage.

Collimation: restricting the size and shape of X-ray to desired size. And the best collimator is the rectangular collimator because it has the
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same size and shape of the film. And it will decrease exposure of the useful beam, so we need to increase our exposure. So, many factors affecting X-ray: thickness, density, kilo voltage, milliampere, distance, collimation, filtration and amount of exposure. If there is an adult man and a kid, what is the amount of exposure in such patients? In which we need to increase our exposure? In adults because they have thick bone, more tissues, and more density so we need to increase exposure. While in kids you sometimes need to decrease the exposure up to 50%. Moreover cells of young patients are more susceptible to damage from X-rays. In adults we increase the exposure dose because of inverse square law doubling the distance will decrease the intensity to 1/4.

You need to read more about these factors, we did our best in writing this script, forgive us if there is any mistake,

Better late than never Done by: Yanal Fakhoury Corrected by: Sawsan Jwaied

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