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  • Essay / Density and Radiographic Detail - 732

    Density is a radiographic property that affects the detail of the radiograph by determining the overall darkness of the film (Adler, 2013). The main factor determining density is mAs; mAs is found by multiplying the milliampere by time, which is recorded in seconds (Adler, 2013). The density of an image is directly proportional to the technical factors of milliampere per second (Bushong, 2013). Optical density can be measured using a densitometer, which will give the density a numerical value (Bushong, 2013). Milliampere per second is the primary factor controlling density, and mAs can be manipulated to maintain density when other factors such as kVp influence radiographic density. Density and mAs have a direct correlation; if mAs decreases, the radiographic density will also decrease, and vice versa. To prove the relationship between density and mAs, an experiment was carried out. Factors that remained constant during this experiment were the use of the same cassette for all exposures, a technical setting of 55 kVp, and the same hand phantom. During the experiment, the only factor that would change is the mAs. For the first exposure, the milliamp was set to 100 and the duration used was 0.05, which would give 5 mAs. The second exposure was made to show a decrease in density by halving the mAs, and it was produced using 50 milliamps and a time of 0.05, which would give 2.5 mAs. The final exposure was created to show an increase in density by doubling the original mAs. The technique used was 50 mA and 0.2 seconds, which gave a mAs of 10. Once the images were processed, the density was given a numerical value using a densitometer, and the same location on each image was used. In the first image, the density measured 1.24. On the second exposure the density was halved to 1.1 and on the last exposure the density will double to 1.53. Looking at the densitometer readings, it is evident that mAs and density have a direct relationship, meaning that if mAs increases, the numerical value of density will increase and vice versa. The second experiment carried out aimed to explain how to maintain the radiographic density when kVp increases. by fifteen percent. Kvp has an effect on the properties of X-rays in terms of quantity and quality (Adler, 2013).