Abstract
The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a noninvasive method to assess rotation time in modern commercial computed tomography (CT) systems. The rotation time was measured at a selected nominal rotation time (400 ms) utilizing two types of solid-state detectors: the RTI's CT Dose Profiler (CTDP) and Unfors' Xi (Xi) probes. Either CTDP or Xi was positioned on the inner cover of the gantry and a sheet of lead (1 mm thick) placed on top of the detector. Since a pair of two successive peaks is used to determine the gantry rotation time, by necessity the helical scan must be employed. Upon completion of the data acquisition, these peak times were determined with the dedicated software to obtain rotation time. The average rotation time obtained with CTDP and Xi operated under the dedicated software was found to be 400.6 and 400.5 ms, respectively. The detector for this measurement need not be specifically designed for CT dosimetry. The measurements of CT scanner rotation time can be accomplished with a radiation probe designed for the CT application or a conventional radiation probe designed for radiography and fluoroscopy applications. It is also noteworthy to point out that the measurement results are in good agreement between the two radiation detector systems. Finally, clinical medical physicists should be aware of the accuracy and precision of gantry rotation time, and take into consideration for QA where and when applicable.