CMT  Technology of Tomography

Tomography is a special technique to show in detail images of structures lying in a predetermined plane of tissue, while blurring or eliminating detail due to images of structures in other planes. The more complex the motion, the more effective the elimination of structures outside the focal plane.

Hypocycloidal Motion: Examination of the wire phantom graphically illustrates that when using the hypocycloidal motion, there is uniform blurring of all wires. All elements of the phantom outside the plane of focus experience uniform blur and do not distort the image of the focal plane. A sharp image of only one wire will result.

           


Linear Motion: Examination of the wire phantom graphically illustrates that the blurring pattern of a linear tomographic system is very irregular and incomplete. Irregular blurring with linear obscuring movements can create false images in the plane of focus. Any anatomy within approximately 30cm of the focal plane can appear in the image and cannot be distinguished from the anatomy inside the focal plane. This phenomenon suggests that a linear tomogram does not record the image of a section plane, but rather it records an irregular plane of varying depths.

"The single most significant factor to influence the quality of a tomogram is the spatial direction of the tube-film obscuring motion", therefore the more complex the motion, the more effective the blurring (elimination) of structures outside the focal plane. The more effective the blur, the less the image will contain unwanted structures and artifacts that might interfere with interpretation.

The Panorex CMT PLUS uses the most sophisticated of complex motions available on the market today, called "hypocycloidal motion". For details on this technology (as compared to linear/transverse motion), please refer to Science Behind the Panorex CMT PLUS.