[Complexity evaluation of data transfer in the Z-axis direction in 4-row multislice spiral CT using fractal dimension...

Image reconstruction in multislice spiral/helical computed tomography (MSCT) consists of a package of data on the arbitrary direction of the Z-axis that can be collected by active detector arrays. Thus the recombined data vary with each spiral pitch. In certain cases of spiral pitch, data compression can occur, and the spiral artifacts that are characteristic of MSCT would change. In our study, we evaluated image complications by fractal dimensions, because the geometrical patterns from a conic phantom are closely related to data transfer in the direction of the Z-axis in spiral pitches. We hoped to establish useful spiral pitches and slice collimation for clinical use in a 4-row MSCT scanner. By employing a conic phantom of 120 mm in diameter and a cone angle of 100 degrees, we measured the fractal dimension of the conic phantom image by making a binary to outline from 2.0 to 8.0 of various slice collimations. Moreover, in order to evaluate the correlation between fractal dimensions and image artifacts, we confirmed the influence of spiral pitch and reconstruction slice thickness for clinical use. We found that, when the reconstruction slice thickness was the same, the cross section of the conic phantom that was from thin-slice collimations was more similar to an actual circle than that of wide-slice collimations. The former deserved a low value and showed slight changes, and, therefore, its fractal dimensions were fixed. As a phenomenon worthy of attention, when we employed wide-slice collimations (4x5.0 mm) during peculiar low spiral pitches of 2.5 to 3.0 fractal dimensions remained low and similar to an actual circle. By these analyses of the influence of data transfer in the direction of the Z-axis, we found that spiral pitch influenced the rate of slice collimation used for data acquisition closely to the reconstruction slice thickness. Based on these findings, when slice collimations and reconstruction slice thickness should be made equal, we estimated that spiral pitches of low image artifacts in 4row MSCT ranged from 2.5 to 3.0 using fractal dimensions. We consider that a new adaptation of fractal dimension analysis is possible when it is used as an index in determining protocols.