Clinical Applications of a CT Window Blending Algorithm: RADIO (Relative Attenuation-Dependent Image Overlay)

Jacob C Mandell; Bharti Khurana; Les R Folio; Hyewon Hyun; Stacy E Smith; Ruth M Dunne; Katherine P Andriole

doi:10.1007/s10278-017-9941-1

Clinical Applications of a CT Window Blending Algorithm: RADIO (Relative Attenuation-Dependent Image Overlay)

J Digit Imaging. 2017 Jun;30(3):358-368. doi: 10.1007/s10278-017-9941-1.

Authors

Jacob C Mandell¹, Bharti Khurana², Les R Folio³, Hyewon Hyun⁴, Stacy E Smith^{5

6}, Ruth M Dunne⁷, Katherine P Andriole⁶

Affiliations

¹ Division of Musculoskeletal Imaging and Intervention, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA. jmandell@partners.org.
² Division of Emergency Radiology, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
³ Radiology and Imaging Sciences, NIH Clinical Center, Bethesda, USA.
⁴ Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁵ Division of Musculoskeletal Imaging and Intervention, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
⁶ Center for Evidence Based Imaging, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁷ Divisions of Thoracic Imaging and Abdominal Imaging and Intervention, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

Abstract

A methodology is described using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Extendscript to process DICOM images with a Relative Attenuation-Dependent Image Overlay (RADIO) algorithm to visualize the full dynamic range of CT in one view, without requiring a change in window and level settings. The potential clinical uses for such an algorithm are described in a pictorial overview, including applications in emergency radiology, oncologic imaging, and nuclear medicine and molecular imaging.

Keywords: CT dynamic range; CT window settings; Contrast sensitivity; Grayscale visualization.

MeSH terms

Algorithms*
Humans
Radiology
Radiology Information Systems*
Tomography, X-Ray Computed / methods*