Radiation Imaging - Introduction to Biomedical Engineering - page 1038

15. Of the three basic types of radioaction—alpha, beta, and gamma—which have the greatest
penetration into tissue? Explain the rationale behind your answer.
16. Discuss the principle of scintillation. How is it detected? How can it be used to generate an
image?
17. One method of treating cancer of the thyroid is to insert a small radioactive source directly
into the tumor. The radiation emitted by the source can destroy cancerous cells. Why do you
suppose 131

53 I is used for this treatment?
18. Provide a clinical example of the use of instrumentation employed to detect the rate of
“radioactive workout.”
19. In a photomultiplier tube, assume that there are seven diodes with potentials 100, 200, 300,
400, 500, 600, and 700 V. The average energy required to free an electron from the dynode
surface is 10 eV. For each incident electron released from rest, how many electrons are freed
at the first dynode? At the last dynode?
20. Discuss the process of producing a tomograph. Provide figures to illustrate your answer.
21. Describe the operation of the iterative method to produce an image.
22. Provide an illustration of how the net absorption coefficient is obtained for each volume
element.

Suggested Readings
E.L. Alpen, Radiation Biophysics, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 1990.
J.D. Bronzino, Computer applications in patient care, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass, 1982.
Z.H. Cho, J.P. Jones, M. Singh, Foundations of Medical Imaging, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, 1993.
B.F. Croft, B.M.N. Tsui, Nuclear Medicine, in: The Biomedical Engineering Handbook, CRC Press, 1995,

pp. 1046-1076.
I.A. Cunningham, P.F. Juoy, Computerized Tomography, in: The Biomedical Engineering Handbook, CRC Press,
1995, pp. 990-1005.
G.N. Hounsfield, Computerized transverse axial scanning (tomography) part 1, description of system, Br. J. Radiol.
46 (1973) 1016-1022.
C.H. McCollough, R.L. Morin, The technical design and performance of ultrafast computed tomography, Cardiac
Imagery 32 (1994) 521-536.
C.H. McCollough, Acceptance testing of a fifth generation scanning-electron-beam computed tomography scanner,
Med. Phys. 19 (1992) 846.
R.A. Serway, J.S. Faughn, College Physics, second ed., Saunders College Publishing, Philadelphia, 1989.
R.E. Shroy Jr., M.S. Van Lipel, M.J. Yaffe, X-rays, in: The Biomedical Engineering Handbook, CRC Press, 1995,
pp. 953-989.