An evaluation of CT systems from ten manufactures

During the past three years, 23 computerized tomography (CT) machines from ten different manufacturers located in Europe and the USA have been evaluated. Using the same set of phantoms and measurement techniques, performance data have been derived including noise, uniformity of CT numbers, low contrast detectability, spatial resolution, modulation transfer function, effective photon energy and linearity of CT numbers. Thermoluminescent and film dosimetry were used to determine single-slice dose profiles at the periphery and centre of specialized anthropomorphic phantoms. The results of this study are presented in tabular and graphical form together with some general conclusions on their implications.