Radiation Protection of a Patient Undergoing an Orthopedic Procedure by Using a Mobile C-Arm X-Ray System

Modern medicine is unthinkable without X-rays. Accurate diagnosis, leading to effective treatment, is largely based on precise X-ray examinations. The creation of new, modern equipment and various medical procedures that meet the increased requirements are a priority in our time. X-ray examinations are of particular importance for the orthopedic and traumatological clinics, where they provide information about presence of a fracture in the patient’s body, about the concrete operation performed or about the effect of a suitable treatment. Along with their benefits X-rays have also a harmful effect. This requires special care to protect from this radiation. In this direction, research is constantly being done to improve the quality of radiation protection. Park MR, Lee KM and co-authors, compare the dose load obtained using C-arm and O-arm X-ray systems (which have the capability of combined 2D fluoroscopy and 3D computed tomography imaging). In their study, an orthopedic surgical procedure using C-arm and O-arm systems in 2D fluoroscopy modes was simulated. The radiation doses to susceptible organs of the operators were investigated. He results obtained show that the O-arm system delivered higher doses to the sensitive organs of the operator in all configurations [1]. The article of Stephen Balte briefly reviews the available technologies for measuring or estimation of patient skin dose in the interventional fluoroscopic environment, created by various X-ray equipment including C-arm systems. Given that many patients require multiple procedures, this documentation also aids in the planning of follow up visits [2]. Chong Hing Wong, Yoshihisa Kotani and co-authors evaluate the radiation exposures (RE) to the patient and surgeon during minimally invasive lumbar spine surgery with instrumentation using C-arm image intensifier or O-arm intraoperative CT. The results they get are in favor of the O-arm system [3]. The article “Virtual fluoroscopy for intraoperative C-arm positioning and radiation dose reduction” discusses positioning of an intraoperative C-arm system to achieve clear visualization of a particular anatomical feature by a system for virtual fluoroscopy (called FluoroSim) that could dramatically reduce time and received dose during the procedures. FluoroSim was found to reduce the radiation exposure required for C-arm positioning without reducing positioning time or accuracy, providing a potentially valuable tool to assist surgeons [4]. In our study, we performed practical measurements to show how the patient can be treated by applying most effective radiation protection when using a mobile C-arm X-ray system. For the study, we used exposure upon a phantom placed on the patient’s table. For an X-ray shielding, we used a protective apron with a lead equivalent of 1 mm, placed in two layers on the phantom. In each subsequent series of exposures, the protective apron was placed on the phantom, in a different position relative to the X-ray beam. The general conclusion of our study is that in order to obtain maximum protection from scattered radiation when using C-arm X-ray systems, the patient must be protected by a shielding with a suitable lead equivalent for the procedure performed which must be placed between patient’s body and X-ray tube, perpendicular to the X-ray beam pointed toward the region of interest.

A Study on Cascade R-CNN-Based Dangerous Goods Detection Using X-Ray Image

X-ray inspection equipment is divided into small baggage inspection equipment and large cargo inspection equipment.In the case of inspection using X-ray scanning equipment,it is possible to identify the contents of goods,unauthorized transport,or hidden goods in real-time by-passing cargo through X-rays without opening it.In this paper,we propose a system for detecting dangerous objects in X-ray images using the Cascade Region-based Convolutional Neural Network(Cascade R-CNN)model,and the data used for learning consists of dangerous goods,storage media,firearms,and knives.In addition,to minimize the overfitting problem caused by the lack of data to be used for artificial intelligence(AI)training,data samples are increased by using the CP(copy-paste)algorithm on the existing data.It also solves the data labeling problem by mixing supervised and semi-supervised learning.The four comparative models to be used in this study are Faster Regionbased Convolutional Neural Networks Residual2 Network-101(Faster R-CNN_Res2Net-101)supervised learning,Cascade R-CNN_Res2Net-101_supervised learning,Cascade Region-based Convolutional Neural Networks Composite Backbone Network V2(CBNetV2)Network-101(Cascade R-CNN_CBNetV2Net-101)_supervised learning,and Cascade RCNN_CBNetV2-101_semi-supervised learning which are then compared and evaluated.As a result of comparing the performance of the four models in this paper,in case of Cascade R-CNN_CBNetV2-101_semi-supervised learning,Average Precision(AP)(Intersection over Union(IoU)=0.5):0.7%,AP(IoU=0.75):1.0%than supervised learning,Recall:0.8%higher.

Predicting and Suppressing Oversensing of a Pacemaker in Plain X-Ray Photography

We conducted experiments of oversensing generation of pacemaker (PM) and X-irradiation direction dependency of PM, and examined the oversensing suppression method, using 8 different types of PMs. It was found out from this experiment that oversensing would occur when some conditions (X-irradiation direction, X-irradiation intensity) are met. Oversensing occurred with the most low irradiation conditions (kV × mA) when PM was irradiated at 90° (vertically to C-MOS;Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor). The acuter the angle of irradiation is (α > 90° < α), the higher the irradiation conditions (kV × mA) at which oversensing start to occur. In plain X-ray photography, oversensing was confirmed under the irradiation conditions of (cervical spine, thoracic spine, lateral thoracic spine, rib, shoulder joint, collarbone, humerus, and chest).Once the irradiation angle and irradiation conditions (kV × mA) are available, oversensing is predictable to some extent. Our findings will help to predict oversensing generation of plain X-ray photography and suppress oversensing. Oversensing can be suppressed in most of the radiography by lowering tube current to 100 mA, but a 1.0 mm High-Density Tungsten Sheet must be put on PM in high tube voltage radiography.

X-Ray Powder Diffraction: Why Not Use CuKβ Radiation?

CuKβ radiation with a wavelength of λ = 1.3923 ? is recommended for crystal structure determination from X-ray powder diffraction using the Rietfeld method. A highly sensitive image plate detector is able to collect enough intensity to record a brilliant X-ray powder pattern in a reasonable time, compared to CuKα1 radiation used today. Especially atomic displacement coefficients could be determined more precisely with the much greater number of reflections recorded. A double-radius Guinier camera attached to a micro-focus rotating anode tube ensures increased brilliance besides high resolution. A simple construction specification is presented to make smart cylindrically bent Ge(111) or Si(111) X-ray monochromators that deliver focused CuKβ radiation. The highly linear response of image plate detectors allows removing of fluorescence radiation simply as background of the pattern. The proposed equipment is a cost-efficient alternative to a liquid gallium-metal-jet X-ray source with maximum power load and a similar wavelength of λ(GaKα1) = 1.34013 ?.