The Influence of Gantry Geometry on Aliasing and Other Geometry Dependent Errors

At least three gantry geometries are widely used in medical CT scanners: (1) rotate-translate, (2) rotating detectors, (3) stationary detectors. There are significant geometrical differences between these designs, especially regarding (a) the region of space scanned by any given detector and (b) the sample density of rays which scan the patient. It is imperative to distinguish between "views" and "rays" in analyzing this situation. In particular, views are defined by the x-ray source in type 2 and by the detector in type 3 gantries. It is known that ray dependent errors are generally much more important than view dependent errors. It is shown that spatial resolution is primarily limited by the spacing between rays in any view, while the number of ray samples per beam width determines the extent of aliasing artifacts. Rotating detector gantries are especially susceptible to aliasing effects. It is shown that aliasing effects can distort the point spread function in a way that is highly dependent on the position of the point in the scanned field. Such effects can cause anomalies in the MTF functions as derived from points in machines with significant aliasing problems.