X-RAY

ATTENUATION
By Vishnu Naveen
Moderator: Dr.Vinayak U S
WHAT IS ATTENUATION?

“ The reduction in the intensity of an X ray beam as it traverses matter

by either the absorption or deflection of photons from the beam”

is a measure of a change in

X ray intensity, and hence
it depends on both quantity
and quality
INTENSITY OF A BEAM
= QUANTITY x QUALITY

QUANTITY:
“The number of photons in the beam”
QUALITY:
“The energies of the photons in the
beam”
Monochromatic radiation

60Kev 60Kev
Incident x-ray beam
 When the number of photons remaining in the
Attenuation of beam decreases by the same percentage with
each increment of the absorber, as with a
monochromatic radiation monochromatic radiation , the attenuation is
called exponential
ATTENUATION COEFFCIENTS

“An attenuation coefficient is a measure of the

quantity of radiation attenuated by a given
thickness of an absorber”

(Name of the coefficient determined by the units

used to measure the thickness of the absorber)
LINEAR ATTENUATION
COEFFICIENT
“Quantitative measurement of attenuation per
centimeter of absorber”

The most important coefficient for diagnostic

radiology
Symbol is μ
Unit is “per centimeter” or cm -1
 The linear attenuation coefficent is for monochromatic radiation

 Specific both for the energy of the X ray beam and the type of the
absorber

 Water, fat, bone and air all have different linear attenuation
coefficients

 Size of the coefficient changes as energy of the X ray beam changes

 When the energy of the radiation is increased , the number of X

rays that are attenuated decreases and so does the linear
attenuation coefficient
Formula for exponential equation

N=N0e-μx

N = number of transmitted photons

N0=number of incident photons
e = base of natural algorithm
μ = linear attenuation coefficiecnt
x= absorber thickness

With linear attenuation coefficients , we can calculate the percentage of

transmitted photons for a whole variety of photon energies and for any
thickness of tissue
MASS ATTENUATION COEFFICIENT
“The coefficient used to quantitate the
attenuation of materials independent of their
physical state”

Water
same
Ice
mass
Water vapour coefficient
Mass attenuation coefficient =
o The absorber and the coefficients
have different units
Linear Mass
attenuation attenuation
coefficient coefficient
Absorber Cm g/cm2
Coefficients Cm -1 Cm2/g

o Unit for the coefficient is reciprocal of

the unit of the absorber
FACTORS AFFECTING
ATTENUATION
Radiation and attenuation
Density and atomic number
■ General rule:
Elements with high atomic numbers are denser than atoms with low atomic
numbers.
■ Exceptions: ATOMIC DENSITY
NUMBER (gm/cm3 )
Gold 79 19.3
Lead 82 11.0

No relationship between atomic number and density when

different physical states of matter are considered
EG : Water has an effective atomic number of 7.4 in ice, liquid
and vapor form
Density and electron per grams

■ Since density depends on volume (weight per unit volume),

there is no relationship between density and electrons per gram

■ A gram of water has the same number of electrons regardless

of whether they are compressed together in a 1 cm cube as
liquid or spread out over 1670 cm3 as vapor
Atomic number and electrons per gram

• The number of electrons per gram is really a

function of the number of the neutrons in the
atom
• If elements didn’t have neutrons, all materials
would have 6 X 10 23 electrons!
Electrons per gram for elements imp in
diagnostic radiology

ELEMENTS ATOMIC NO OF
NUMBER ELECTRONS PER
GRAM
Hydrogen 1 6.00 X 10 23
Oxygen 8 3.01 X 10 23
Calcium 20 3.00 X 10 23
Copper 29 2.75 X 10 23
Iodine 53 2.51 X 10 23
Barium 56 2.45 X 10 23
lead 82 2.38 X 10 23
• Elements found in soft tissue- oxygen, carbon
and nitrogen- all have 3.00 X 10 23 electrons/gram

• In general, elements with low atomic numbers

have more electrons per gram than those with
high atomic numbers
Effects of energy and atomic number

• Energy and atomic number together determine

the percentage of each type of basic interaction
• Hence their effects on attenuation are inseparable
Percentage of photoelectric reactions
 As energy increases, the percentage of photoelectric reactions
decrease for water and bones.

 As atomic number increases , percentage of photoelectric

reactions increases.
• With extremely low energy radiation(20keV),
photoelectric attenuation predominates , regardless of
atomic number of the absorber

• As radiation energy is increased, Compton scattering

becomes more important until eventually it replaces
the photoelectric effect as the predominant interaction

• With high atomic number absorbers, like sodium

iodide, the photoelectric effect is the predominant
interaction throughout the diagnostic energy range
Linear attenuation coefficient is the sum of the
contributions from coherent scattering,
photoelectric reactions and Compton scattering

μ = μcoherent + μPE + μCompton

General rule:
“the higher the energy of the radiation, the
larger the percentage of transmitted
photons, regardless of the type of basic
interaction”
Exception:
high atomic number absorbers
With high atomic number absorbers, transmission may actually decrease with increasing
beam energy

Atomic number Why ?

There is an A photon cannot Thus a lower

abrupt change in eject an electron energy photon is
the likelihood of unless it has more likely to
a photoelectric more energy be transmitted
reaction as the than the than a high
radiation energy electron’s energy photon ,
reaches the binding energy provided one
binding energy has slightly less
of an inner shell and the other
electron slightly more
energy than the
electron’s
binding energy
Percent transmission of monochromatic radiation through 1 mm
lead

ENERGY TRANSMISSION
(keV) (%)
50 0.016
60 0.40
80 6.8
88 12.0
-K edge for lead-
88 0.026
100 0.14
150 0.96
 Higher the attenuation coefficient , lower
the number of transmitted photons.

 Gram for Gram , Tin is a better absorber of

X-rays than lead between 29Kev and
88Kev.
 Thus a lighter tin apron gives the same protection as a standard lead apron!

 Barium and iodine , the commonly used contrast agents have ideal K shell
binding energies

 These binding energies are almost the same as the mean energy of most
diagnostic X ray beams

 So many interactions occur at the K shell level

 Attenuation is more intense than it would be for a higher atomic number

element

 Most photons in a polychromatic beam are less energetic that 88 keV K shell
binding energy of lead
• When maximum X ray absorption
is desired, the K edge of the
absorber should be closely matched
to the energy of the X ray beam
• Implications
 Selenium ( K edge : 12.7 keV) used
as absorber in xeroradiography
 Tungsten ( K edge : 59.5 keV) used
as absorber in chest radiography
with a field emission unit
Effects of electrons per gram
• The number of Compton reactions
depends on number of electrons in
a given thickness
• Absorbers with more electrons are
more impervious to radiation
• Electrons per gram X Density =
electrons per cubic centimeter

X =
POLYCHROMATIC RADIATION

• Polychromatic beams contain a whole

spectrum of photons of various
energies
• The most energetic are determined by
the peak kilovoltage (kVp) used to
generate the beam
• Mean energy = 1/3 to 1/2 of its peak
energy
• Depends on filtration
As polychromatic radiation passes through an absorber
 the transmitted photons undergo a change in both quantity and
quality

 Number of photons decreases because some are deflected and

absorbed out of the beam

 quality of beam also changes because lower energy photons are

more readily attenuated than higher energy photons (unlike
monochromatic radiation )

 As the lower energy photons removed from the beam, the mean
energy of the remaining photons increases
• When the percentage of transmission
is plotted on semi algorthmic graph
paper, it results in a curved line
• Initial slope is steep because many low
energy photons are attenuated by the
first few cms of water
• Eventually curve becomes similar to
slope for monochromatic beam as the
mean energy of the poly chromatic
radiation approaches its peak energy
 Applications to diagnostic radiology

• The photons in an X ray beam enter a patient with

uniform distribution and emerge in a specific
pattern of distribution
• The transmitted photons carry the X ray image
• Their pattern carries the memory of the
attenuated photons
• What if all photons were transmitted?
the film would be uniformly black
• And if all photons were attenuated?
the film would be uniformly white

Some tissues attenuate more X rays than others and

the size of this differential determines the amount
of contrast in the X ray image
 SCATTER RADIATION
• Makes up 50 to 90%of
total number of
photons emerging
from the patient
• With thick body parts
like abdomen, only 1%
of the photons in initial
beam reach the film
• The rest are attenuated
• Secondary radiation: undesirable radiation which
includes photons and electrons that might
contribute to film fog
• Mostly compton scattering
 As x ray field is enlarged, the scatter radiation
increases rapidly at first

 Then gradually tapers off until it reaches a

plateau or saturation point

 Further increase in field size does not change the

quantity of scatter radiation that reaches the film

 The total number of scattered photons in the

field increase but the number that reaches any
particular point on the film remains constant
THANK YOU.