Slice-thickness evaluation in CT and MRI: an alternative computerised procedure

Purpose: The efficient use of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment necessitates establishing adequate quality-control (QC) procedures. In particular, the accuracy of slice thickness (ST) requires scan exploration of phantoms containing test objects (plane, cone or spiral). To simplify such procedures, a novel phantom and a computerised LabView-based procedure have been devised, enabling determination of full width at half maximum (FWHM) in real time. Materials and methods: The phantom consists of a polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) box, diagonally crossed by a PMMA septum dividing the box into two sections. The phantom images were acquired and processed using the LabView-based procedure. Results: The LabView (LV) results were compared with those obtained by processing the same phantom images with commercial software, and the Fisher exact test (F test) was conducted on the resulting data sets to validate the proposed methodology. Conclusions: In all cases, there was no statistically significant variation between the two different procedures and the LV procedure, which can therefore be proposed as a valuable alternative to other commonly used procedures and be reliably used on any CT and MRI scanner.