INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY OF MOBILE TOMOSYNTHESIS WITH BONE DENSITY ASSESSMENT

Abstract

The paper considers approaches to improving the efficiency of mobile X-ray tomosynthesis under conditions of limited energy resources and mechanical instability of the system. It is shown that, compared to stationary systems, mobile X-ray complexes operate with significantly lower source power and restricted exposure parameters, which complicates the achievement of high image quality and requires optimization of acquisition and processing procedures in accordance with the ALARA principle. The relationship between the signal-to-noise ratio of the primary X-ray quantum flux and the signal-to-background ratio in reconstructed images is analyzed. It is demonstrated that reducing the tomographic layer thickness, inherent to tomosynthesis, decreases the effect of anatomical structure superposition and increases image contrast. However, this also leads to a reduction in the number of detected quanta per voxel, resulting in a lower signal-to-noise ratio. A compromise approach is substantiated, involving controlled reduction of spatial resolution in the image plane to stabilize the signal-to-noise ratio without increasing radiation dose. A method for compensating mechanical and geometric errors of a mobile system is proposed. The method is based on determining the actual trajectory of the X-ray source using a reference marker and inertial sensor data. This allows the formation of individual geometric parameters for each projection and enables adaptation of reconstruction algorithms to real acquisition conditions, reducing artifacts and improving image quality. In addition, a method for bone density estimation based on intensity calibration using a reference phantom is developed. The proposed approach enables relative quantitative assessment without requiring full 3D reconstruction and provides consistency of measurements across different studies. The results demonstrate that the integration of the proposed methods improves image quality and enhances the functional capabilities of mobile X-ray tomosynthesis systems in practical applications.