A solid iodinated phantom material for use in tomographic x‐ray imaging
Bibliographic record
Abstract
PURPOSE: Iodinated phantoms are of value in x-ray imaging for quality control measurements, system calibration, and for use in the research setting; however, the liquid phantoms that are most often used have several limitations including variability between repeated dilutions, inhomogeneities from air bubbles or precipitants, and long set up times. Although suitable materials have been investigated for projection radiography, quantitative measurements of contrast enhancement in computed tomography (CT) have become increasingly important in the clinic, and a need exists for a durable and reproducible iodinated phantom material. In this work, the authors describe a solid radiographic phantom material that has an accurately known concentration of iodine distributed uniformly throughout its volume and that has stable properties over time. This material can be molded or machined into a desired shape to create a test object or for use in an anthropomorphic phantom. METHODS: Two sets of calibration phantoms were produced with a clinically relevant range of iodine concentrations. Measurements were made on these phantoms to characterize the material properties in terms of accuracy of iodine concentration, radiographic uniformity, temporal stability of x-ray attenuation, and manufacturing repeatability. Experimentally measured linear x-ray attenuation coefficients were compared to those predicted by a theoretical model. The uniformity of the iodine distribution in the material was assessed by measuring image intensity variation, both in projection images and in reconstructed CT volumes. The reproducibility of manufacture was estimated on a set of independently produced samples. A longitudinal study was performed to assess the stability of the material x-ray characteristics over time by making measurements at 6 month intervals. RESULTS: Good agreement was seen between the experimental measurements of effective attenuation and the theoretically predicted values. It is estimated that a desired iodine concentration could be produced to within 0.04 mg/ml. Comparison of the measured effective linear iodine attenuation coefficients of eight 1.0 mg/ml samples indicated a manufacturing reproducibility of +/-0.03 mg/ml iodine. Variations in uniformity across each of the samples were on the order of image intensity fluctuations (sigma). No inhomogeneities due to mixing or settling were apparent. An analysis of longitudinal data collected for both calibration sets revealed no perceptible change in radiographic properties over the first 6 months after manufacture, nor over a subsequent 1.5 yr period from 1 yr postmanufacture onward. CONCLUSIONS: The uniformity, stability, and precision of this iodinated material suggest that it is suitable for use in accurate calibration tools for contrast tomographic imaging.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.004 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".