Parallel cascades: New ways to describe noise transfer in medical imaging systems

A generalized approach to describing transfer of the noise power spectrum through medical imaging systems has been developed over the past several years in which image-forming processes are represented in terms of a cascade of amplified point processes. Until recently, this approach has been restricted to serial cascades only. Here we develop a generalized expression for the cross covariance of amplified point processes and an expression for the cross spectral density for wide-sense stationary conditions. These results extend the generalized transfer-theory approach to include the description of more complex image-forming processes involving parallel cascades of quantum amplification processes. This parallel-cascade approach is used to develop a theoretical expression for noise-power transfer in a simple radiographic screen that includes the effect of characteristic x-ray reabsorption. The result confirms earlier work by Metz and Vyborny, who showed that reabsorption increases image noise and decreases the detective quantum efficiency at low spatial frequencies. Use of the transfer-theory approach facilitates a straightforward generalization to many new digital imaging systems including conventional angiographic and active-matrix flat-panel systems. (C) 2001 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.