Anode heel effect
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View Aditya Shetty's current disclosuresAt the time the article was last revised Raymond Chieng had no financial relationships to ineligible companies to disclose.
View Raymond Chieng's current disclosures- Heel effect
Anode heel effect refers to the lower field intensity towards the anode in comparison to the cathode due to lower x-ray emissions from the target material at angles perpendicular to the electron beam.
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Basic concept
The conversion of the electron beam into x-rays doesn’t simply occur at the surface of the target material but deep within it. Because x-rays are produced deep in the target material they must traverse back out of it before they can proceed to the target field. More target material needs to be traversed at emission angles that are perpendicular to the electron beam (closer to the anode) than at those more parallel to it (closer to the cathode). This increase in material leads to more resorption of the x-rays by the target material resulting in fewer x-rays reaching the field at angles perpendicular to the electron beam. It also means that the x-rays emitted to angles closer to the incident beam travel through less target material and fewer are resorbed.
The end result is that the field intensity towards the cathode is more than that towards the anode.
Factors
anode angle: by increasing the angle, the amount of target material perpendicular to the anode is decreased resulting in less resorption of x-rays produced.
target-to-film distance: increase in distance reduces heel effect by allowing more divergence of the beam which produces a more uniform image.
field size: the field will be more uniform at the center (i.e. smaller field size) due to the collimator absorbing the peripheral variations.
positioning: by aligning higher attenuating material towards the cathode and lower attenuating material towards the anode the resulting field is more uniform
Applications
Anode heel effect can benefit in X-ray imaging by aligning the anode-cathode axis parallel to thinner-thicker sections of the patient's body, thus equalising the patient's exposure to X-rays and produce a more uniform image. Anode heel effect have shown positive results in the imaging of kidneys, ureter, and bladder (KUB), skull, chest, pelvis, abdomen, thoracic, lumbar, and extremities 2.
Mammography also utilizes anode heel effect to its advantage by aligning the cathode close to the thoracic wall (thicker and denser) and anode close to the nipple (thinner) 3.
Quiz questions
References
- 1. Curry TS, Dowdey JE, Murry RE. Christensen ́s physics of diagnostic radiology 4 Ed. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. (1990) ISBN:0812113101. Read it at Google Books - Find it at Amazon
- 2. Mearon T & Brennan P. Anode Heel Affect in Thoracic Radiology: A Visual Grading Analysis. SPIE Proceedings. 2006. doi:10.1117/12.641623
- 3. Vockelmann C. Mammography. Basic Knowledge Radiology. 2023;:29-31. doi:10.1007/978-3-662-66351-6_3
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