X-Ray Digital Linear Tomosynthesis Imaging of Arthoroplasty

Interest in tomosynthesis and its clinical applications has been revived by recent advances in digital X-ray detector technology. Conventional tomography technology provides planar information of an object from its projection images. In tomography, an X-ray tube and X-ray film receptor are positioned on either side of the object. The relative motion of the tube and film is predetermined based on the location of the in-focus plane (Ziedses des plate 1932). A single image plane is generated by a scan, and multi-slice computed tomography (CT) scans are required to provide a sufficient number of planes to cover the selected structure in the object. Tomosynthesis acquires only one set of discrete X-ray projections that can be used to reconstruct any plane of the object retrospectively (Grant 1972). This technique has been investigated in angiography and imaging of the chest, hand joints, lungs, teeth, and breasts (Stiel et al 1993 , Duryea et al 2003 , Sone et al 1995 , Niklason et al 1997 , Dobbins et al 2003).