CT Imaging: Basics and New Trends

International audienceThis chapter presents the principle of X-ray CT and its evolution during the last 40 years. The first section describes the physical basis of X-ray CT, tomographic image reconstruction algorithms, and the source of artifacts in X-ray CT images. The second section is devoted to the evolution of CT technology from the first translation-rotation systems to multi-slice spiral CTs currently used today. The next section addresses specific developments of CT technology and applications, like perfusion CT, quantitative CT, and spectral CT. The fourth section introduces the problem of radiation exposure delivered to the patient and its evaluation. Finally the last section addresses the development in micro- and even nano-CT which is a rapidly evolving area in preclinical imaging and biology

Applying Geometric Morphometrics to Digital Reconstruction and Anatomical Investigation

Virtual imaging, image manipulation and morphometric methods are increasingly used in medicine and the natural sciences. Virtual imaging hardware and image manipulation software allows us to readily visualise, explore, alter, repair and study digital objects. This suite of equipment and tools combined with statistical tools for the study of form variation and covariation using Procrustes based analyses of landmark coordinates, geometric morphometrics, makes possible a wide range of studies of human variation pertinent to biomedicine. These tools for imaging, quantifying and analysing form have already led to new insights into organismal growth, development and evolution and offer exciting prospects in future biomedical applications. This chapter presents a review of commonly used methods for digital acquisition, extraction and landmarking of anatomical structures and of the common geometric morphometric statistical methods applied to investigate them: generalised Procrustes analysis to derive shape variables, principal component analysis to examine patterns of variation, multivariate regression to examine how form is influence