DIAGNOMATIC Pro-CT phantoms –slice thickness module

Slice thickness in the Pro-CT Mini (and in the Pro-CT mk II or Pro-Dent CT) is determined by measuring
the length of ramps in the geometric module image. The image of that module should look like the one
below:

Pro-CT MINI Pro-CT MK II Pro-Dent CT MINI

04-403 04-410 01-303
Table 1 Geometry module image for various Diagnomatic phantoms. Ramps are marked with green arrows.

The measured length depends on slice thickness and an angle at which the ramp is inclined, as shown
in the picture below:

In the Pro-CT Mini phantom ramps are at 45 angle, and tan(45°) is 1. Therefore, slice thickness =
measured length. Pro-CT MK II phantom ramps are at angle (~26.5°) for which tangent equals 0.5.
Therefore, in this case measured slice thickness = measured length*0.5.

NOTE: The wire thickness comparing to slice thickness should be small enough to assume that it’s
thickness doesn’t affect test result. In other words, one cannot precisely measure 0.2 mm slice with
0.2 mm wire.
After image acquisition use one of the methods described in the example below. The principle is
presented for Pro-CT MK II, however it can be very well used for other phantoms.

Ex. 1 - manual method

a) open image series in DICOM viewer (ex. Radiant)

b) select one of the slices containing ramp image
c) verify the nominal slice thickness in the DICOM tag:

d) select ROI containing one of the ramps to determine maximum pixel value PVmax:

e) select ROI in the ramp background and calculate mean pixel value PVbkg:

f)
Calculate pixel value corresponding to FWHM of the ramp profile – it’s in the middle
between PVmax and PVbkg:
𝑃𝑉𝑚𝑎𝑥 −𝑃𝑉𝑏𝑘𝑔
g) 𝑃𝑉𝐹𝑊𝐻𝑀 = 𝑃𝑉𝑏𝑘𝑔 + 2
In this example PVFWHM=126+(290-126)/2=208
h) In the window settings set window level (WL) = PVFWHM, and window width (WW) = 1
i) use available tool to measure lengths of all ramps:

j) calculate average length of the ramps in the image. (It’s 6.54 mm in the example above)
k) use the formula to determine slice thickness:

(slice thickness = 6,54 mm * 0,5 = 3.27 mm)

l) compare measured and nominal values
Ex. 2 – ImageJ profile

a) open ImageJ and install the attached macro file (FWHMt.ijm)

b) open one of the slices containing ramp image in the ImageJ
c) use line selection tool to draw line across ramp profile:

d) Run macro (press “F2” if it has been installed)

e) Enter ramp angle tangent value (eg. 1 for Pro-CT mini)

f) Click “OK”. Macro will fit Gaussian to the ramp profile and calculate its FWHM: