Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of field of view (FOV) and beam energy on the scatter-to-primary ratio (SPR) in dental cone-beam CT (CBCT).
Methods: An anthropomorphic phantom representing an adult male (ATOM Max 711-HN, Norfolk, VA, USA) was scanned using the 3D Accuitomo 170 CBCT (J. Morita, Kyoto, Japan) using 11 FOVs. During each scan, half of the X-ray beam was blocked. Each scan was performed at three exposure settings with varying beam energy and equal radiation dose: 90 kV 5 mA, 77 kV 7.5 mA and 69 kV 10 mA. The SPR was estimated by measuring the grey values in the blocked and non-blocked regions of the RAW data. The effect of FOV on SPR was evaluated using Dunn's multiple comparison test, and the effect of the exposure settings was compared using a Wilcoxon signed rank test.
Results: Larger FOVs showed increased scatter. FOVs with a shorter isocenter-detector distance showed a particularly high SPR. Most intercomparisons between FOVs were statistically significant. The largest difference was found between 17 × 12 cm and 6 × 6 cm (lower jaw), with the former showing a 4.9-fold higher SPR. The effect of beam energy was relatively small and varied between FOV sizes and positions.
Conclusion: While the choice of FOV size and position is determined by the diagnostic region of interest, the image quality deterioration for large FOVs due to scatter provides another incentive to limit the FOV size as much as possible.
Keywords: computer-assisted image analysis; cone-beam computed tomography; dentistry; image quality enhancement; radiation protection.