Scatter rejection by electronic collimation

An electronic scanning-slit technology is under development which involves replacing paired fore and aft slits for scatter rejection with only one fore slit. As the slit scans across the portion of the patient to be imaged, pulsed x-ray exposures produce images of the slit in successive positions, which are digitized and stored in computer memory. Software techniques are used for tracking the slit image, and discriminating against scatter and veiling glare lying outside the slit image. Such "electronic collimation" does not require synchronization between the slit-scanning and detector readout, which makes it much simpler than alternative methods and potentially adaptable to any digital fluorography system. The performance characteristics of a prototype unit are described and images of a low-contrast phantom are presented.