iQMetrix-CT: New software for task-based image quality assessment of phantom CT images.

The purpose of this article was to explain how the new iQMetrix-CT software works, as well as to describe its current potential and discuss its future applications. iQMetrix-CT was developed by a working group from the French Society of Medical Physicists (SFPM). This software calculates three advanced metrics, which have been adapted to take into account the non-linear and non-stationary properties of iterative reconstruction algorithms.

Phantom task-based image quality assessment of three generations of rapid kV-switching dual-energy CT systems on virtual monoenergetic images.

Purpose: To compare the spectral performance of three rapid kV switching dual-energy CT (DECT) systems on virtual monoenergetic images (VMIs) at low-energy levels on abdominal imaging.

Methods: A multi-energy phantom was scanned on three DECT systems equipped with three different gemstone spectral imaging (GSI) platforms: GSI (1st generation, GSI-1st), GSI-Pro (2nd generation, GSI-2nd ), and GSI-Xtream (3rd generation, GSI-3rd). Acquisitions on the phantom were performed with a CTDI close to 11mGy.

National dose reference levels in computed tomography-guided interventional procedures-a proposal.

Objectives: To establish national reference levels (RLs) in interventional procedures under CT guidance as required by the 2013/59/Euratom European Directive.

Methods: Seventeen categories of interventional procedures in thoracic, abdominopelvic, and osteoarticular specialties (percutaneous infiltration, vertebroplasty, biopsy, drainage, tumor destruction) were analyzed. Total dose length product (DLP), number of helical acquisitions (NH), and total DLP for helical, sequential, or fluoroscopic acquisitions were recorded for 10 to 20 patients per procedure at each center.

Modelling by percolation theory of the behaviour of natural coral used as bone substitute.

We investigate the relevance of site-bond percolation theory to model the resorption and ossification of natural coral implanted in bones. The first step of the process is the vascularization of the implant seen here as a percolation threshold. The resorption and ossification can thus take place by activation of unoccupied sites.