NE 107 - INTRODUCTION TO IMAGING (3 units)

Introduction to medical imaging physics and systems, including x-ray computed tomography (CT), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), positron emission tomography (PET), and SPECT; basic principles of tomography and an introduction to unfolding methods; resolution effects of counting statistics, inherent system resolution and human factors. (Fall) Vetter

• 107. Introduction to Imaging. Introduction to
  medical imaging physics and systems, including x-ray computed
  tomography (CT), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), positron emission
  tomography (PET), and SPECT; basic principles of tomography and
  an introduction to unfolding methods; resolution effects of counting
  statistics, inherent system resolution and human factors.

Course Prerequisites

• NE 101 Nuclear Reactions and Radiation or
  consent of instructor
• NE 104A Radiation Detection and Nuclear Instrumentation
  Laboratory or consent of instructor

Prerequisite knowledge and/or skills

The course uses the following knowledge and
skills from prerequisite and lower-division courses:

• basic atomic and nuclear physics.
• basic interaction of radiation with matter.
• basic knowledge of radiation detection and measurement.

Textbook(s) and/or other required material

• R. K. Hobbie, Intermediate Physics for Medicine
  and Biology, AIP Press (1997)
• S. Webb, Ed., "The Physics of Medical Imaging"
  IOP Publ. Ltd. (1996)

Course objectives and outcomes

Course Objectives: It is the
instructor's intention to...

• focus attention to those medical imaging systems
  and methods that rely directly on the properties of nuclei and/or
  machine-made sources of ionizing radiation.
• emphasize the fundamental physics and engineering
  science on which those medical imaging systems are based and how
  these factors determine the qualitative and quantitative information
  that is made available for diagnostic purposes.
• introduce image reconstruction in order to provide
  the basis for understanding tomographic methods. However, the
  general broad area of signal processing will not be dealt with
  except where statistical issues, peculiar to the measurement of
  ionizing radiation, are of principal importance in defining the
  quality of a measurement.
• discuss the following imaging methods in detail:
  X-ray computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET),
  single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and nuclear
  magnetic resonance (NMR).

Course Outcomes: Students must be
able to...

• understand the mechanisms of radiation interaction
  with human body.
• have a working knowledge of the physics of X-ray
  imaging, image quality issues (noise, contrast, spatial resolution),
  tomographic image reconstruction/filtered backprojection, and
  X-ray computed tomography.
• have a working knowledge of the physics of radionuclide
  imaging, Anger Camera principles, image quality issues (noise,
  contrast, spatial resolution, collimation), and tomographic image
  reconstruction.
• understand the basic principles of nuclear magnetic
  resonance.

Topics covered

• General introduction to medical imaging.
• Review of photon interactions, detection, and
  dosimetry.
• The physics of X-Ray imaging: X-Ray image formation:
  analog and digital detectors, image quality (noise, contrast,
  spatial resolution), noise and image perception, imaging systems.
  examples. issues in mammography, tomographic image reconstruction/filtered
  backprojection, X-ray computed tomography.
• The physics of radionuclide imaging: introduction
  to nuclear medicine, the Anger principle and Anger camera, planar
  image formation and statistical noise, collimators, spatial localization,
  and spatial resolution, photon scatter, energy discrimination,
  image contrast, dynamic imaging, nuclear tomography � instrumentation
  and image reconstruction, PET imaging.
• The physics of nuclear magnetic resonance:
  nuclear spins and magnetic moments; quantization; energy splitting
  in a magnetic field; energy transfer between thermal modes and
  the spin system; Boltzmann population distributions; interaction
  between external magnetic fields and the net magnetic moments;
  growth and decay of net moments in the direction of the applied
  field and spin-lattice relaxation ; Larmor frequencies; rotating
  coordinate systems and the rotation of net magnetic moments; attenuation
  of transverse magnetization and spin-spin relaxation; spin echos;
  pulse sequences and auxilliary magnetic field and development
  of spacially-discriminated signals.

Class/laboratory schedule

• This is primarily a lecture course, meeting two
  times a week for 80-minute lectures.

Contribution of course to meeting the professional
component

• This course contributes primarily to the students'
  knowledge of engineering topics, and does not provide design experience.
• Students are required to work on homework sets
  that illustrate basic issues related to medical imaging.

Relationship of course to undergraduate degree
program objectives

• This course primarily serves students in the department.
  The information below describes how the course contributes to
  the undergraduate program objectives.
• This course contributes to the NE program objectives
  by providing education in a fundamental area of physics of medical
  imaging. It does not provide students with direct design experience,
  but includes substantial discussion and illustration of design
  issues.

Assessment of student progress toward course objectives

• Homework problem sets: 20%
• Two midterm Exams 40%
• Final Exam: 40%