Anti-scatter grid – Knowledge and References

Anti-scatter grid

An anti-scatter grid is a device made of alternating x-ray absorbing strips and non-absorbing strips that is placed between the radiation source and the patient. It is designed to reduce the amount of scattered radiation that reaches the detector by selectively attenuating scattered photons while allowing primary photons to pass through. The grid is constructed from strips of a material with high absorption to absorb scattered radiation and material with low absorption to allow the passage of primary photons. It is also referred to as a physical collimator in medical imaging.From: Webb's Physics of Medical Imaging [2019], Comprehensive strategies to minimize radiation exposure during Interventional electrophysiology procedures: state-of-the-art review [2020], Handbook of X-ray Imaging [2017], Techniques for high-fidelity X-ray micro-tomography of additively manufactured metal components [2020], Encyclopaedia of Medical Physics [2020]

Explore chapters and articles related to this topic

Clinical Radiographic Units

View Chapter

Purchase Book

Published in Paolo Russo, Handbook of X-ray Imaging, 2017

Mark F. McEntee

The term “bucky” is a historical term referring to a German radiologist named Gustav Bucky who, in 1915, patented a “Method of and apparatus for projecting Röntgen images” (Bucky 1915). His method used lead strips for blocking most of the scattered radiation from reaching the detector. This grid of lead strips improved the quality of medical X-rays by reducing the amount of scatter that reached the detector, and his device is more correctly referred to as an anti-scatter grid. However, the term bucky is used colloquially to refer to the grid, along with the cassette holder and the AEC, together as one. Although this is an incorrect term, it is still one that predominates. Each one of these devices is described individually below. Ii is important to understand that, in the modern digital era, the cassette holder and cassette have been replaced, in some instances, by direct digital devices. However, the use of grids is still essential and cassette-based image receptors, whether computed radiography, film-screen radiography, or direct digital cassettes, are still relatively common and, therefore, worth describing.

Techniques for high-fidelity X-ray micro-tomography of additively manufactured metal components

View Article

Journal Information

Published in Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation, 2020

A.M. Kingston, Q. Yang, M.G. Grewar, O. Delgado-Friedrichs, G.R. Myers, S.J. Latham, A.P. Sheppard

Collimation is the natural first step in scatter reduction, particularly at CTLab where the scattered signal at the detector is high due to the use of extremely high cone angles () to maximise SNR. With a physical collimator (referred to as an ‘anti-scatter grid’ in medical imaging) only photons that appear to originate from very near the X-ray source point will pass through the collimator and reach the detector. We have designed and constructed a collimator dedicated to high cone-angle geometries. Incidentally, it was possible for us to construct this collimator because of AM. (See Figure 2). The effectiveness of collimation depends on the collimator geometry: the collimation holes need a high depth:diameter ratio and need to be much smaller than the scanned object. The collimator is also more effective when placed near the object. For high cone angles, these constraints mean that the collimator dimensions scale with the sample, so that a given collimator will only be effective for a small range of object sizes. Collimation alone is therefore not a general solution.