FDTD parallel computational analysis of grid-type scattering filter characteristics for medical X-ray image diagnosis

X-ray diagnosis depends on the intensity of transmitted and scattered waves in X-ray propagation in biomedical media. X-ray is scattered and absorbed by tissues, such as fat, bone and internal organs. However, image processing for medical diagnosis, based on the scattering and absorption characteristics of these tissues in X-ray spectrum is not so much studied. To obtain precise information of tissues in a living body, the accurate characteristics of scattering and absorption are required. In this paper, X-ray scattering and absorption in biomedical media are studied using 2-dimensional finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. In FDTD method, the size of analysis space is very limited by the performance of available computers. To overcome this limitation, parallel and successive FDTD method is introduced. As a result of computer simulation, the amplitude of transmitted and scattered waves are presented numerically. The fundamental filtering characteristics of grid-type filter are also shown numerically. (author)