Applications of optical principles in clinical X-ray visualization

Clinical X-ray imaging uses optical engineering principles. This includes principles of quantum optics, laws of geometric optics and virtual optics in 3-D visualization. Quantum optics plays a major role in describing X-ray photon distribution and selection of this distribution for specific clinical protocols. Geometric optics explains parallax in image stitching. Mitigating parallax requires application of optical engineering principles in imaging system design. Virtual optics used in 3-D image visualization applies laws of geometric optics in surface rendering and maximum intensity projection. Application of optical engineering in clinical X-ray system design is pervasive, even though it may not have been recognized as such. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.