Modulation transfer function determination using the edge technique for cone-beam micro-CT

Evaluating spatial resolution is an essential work for cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) manufacturers, prototype designers or equipment users. To investigate the cross-sectional spatial resolution for different transaxial slices with CBCT, the slanted edge technique with a 3D slanted edge phantom are proposed and implemented on a prototype cone-beam micro-CT. Three transaxial slices with different cone angles are under investigation. An over-sampled edge response function (ERF) is firstly generated from the intensity of the slightly tiled air to plastic edge in each row of the transaxial reconstruction image. Then the oversampled ESF is binned and smoothed. The derivative of the binned and smoothed ERF gives the line spread function (LSF). At last the presampled modulation transfer function (MTF) is calculated by taking the modulus of the Fourier transform of the LSF. The spatial resolution is quantified with the spatial frequencies at 10% MTF level and full-width-half-maximum (FWHM) value. The spatial frequencies at 10% of MTFs are 3.1±0.08mm-1, 3.0±0.05mm-1, and 3.2±0.04mm-1 for the three transaxial slices at cone angles of 3.8°, 0°, and -3.8° respectively. The corresponding FWHMs are 252.8μm, 261.7μm and 253.6μm. Results indicate that cross-sectional spatial resolution has no much differences when transaxial slices being 3.8° away from z=0 plane for the prototype conebeam micro-CT.