|
Objectives: Based on the pixel gray value measurements, establish a beam-hardening artifacts index of the
cone-beam CT tomographic image, and preliminarily evaluate its applicability. Methods: The 5mm-diameter metal ball and resin ball were fixed on the light-cured resin base plate respectively, while four vitro molars were fixed above and below the ball, on the left and right respectively, which have 10mm
distance with the metal ball. Then, cone beam CT was used to scan the fixed base plate twice. The same layer tomographic images were selected from the two data and imported into the Photoshop software. The circle
boundary was built through the determination of the center and radius of the circle, according to the artifact-free
images section. Grayscale measurement tools were used to measure the internal boundary gray value G0, gray value G1 and G2 of 1mm and 20mm artifacts outside the circular boundary, the length L1 of the arc with artifacts
in the circular boundary, the circumference L2. Hardening artifacts index was set A = (G1 / G0) * 0.5 + (G2 / G1) * 0.4 + (L2 / L1) * 0.1. Then, the A values of metal and resin materials were calculated respectively. Results: The A value of cobalt-chromium alloy material is 1, and resin material is 0. Conclusion: The A value reflects comprehensively the three factors of hardening artifacts influencing normal oral
tissue image sharpness of cone beam CT. The three factors include relative gray value, the decay rate and range of artifacts.
|
