Perceptibility of experimental and clinical lesions in the CT image with and without image processing

The Ohio-Nuclear Delta 50 FS whole-body CT scanner and image filtering programs FI and SP:SMOOTH provided with the equipment were used to investigate how the perceptibility in the CT image of artificial lesions in a phantom and of liver lesions in patients was influenced by different reconstruction diameters, radiation doses and section thicknesses and by image filtering and different conditions of viewing. The perceptibility of both artificial and clinical lesions was considerably improved, especially in scans with a low radiation dose, when optimum viewing conditions and image filters were used.