Table 3.
Recommended standardisation of CBCT machines features to be reported by the manufacturers
| Features | Specific features | Descriptiona |
|---|---|---|
| General | Dimensions | Width x depth x (maximum) height in meters |
| Weight | Total machine weight in kilograms, without workstation | |
| Patient positioning | Standing, sitting, supine. Wheelchair accessibility | |
| Software (acquisition) | Software used for image acquisition | |
| Software (DICOM viewer) | Software used as DICOM viewer Availability of DICOM structured report tools |
|
| X-rays | Tube voltage (kV) | Fixed (exact value) or variable (range) |
| Tube current (mA) | Fixed (exact value) or variable (range) | |
| Focal spot size | Focal spot size in millimeters | |
| X-rays beam generation | Pulsed or continuous x-rays generation | |
| Detector | Detector type | Type of the detector used for CBCT acquisitions (incl. scintillator and signal read-out system) |
| Detector dimensions | Detector width x height in centimeters | |
| Detector resolution | Detector width x height in pixels Binning (if applicable) |
|
| Detector bit depth | Signal range of the detector | |
| Volume and resolution | Available FOV | All available possibilities of FOV in the machine, not just the smallest and the biggest |
| Stitching for extended FOV | The use of stitching to achieve bigger volumes. Specify if it is horizontal or vertical (or both) stitching | |
| Voxel size | All available voxel sizes, not just the smallest and the biggest | |
| Rotation angle | Rotation arc of the gantry during acquisition | |
| Times | Scan time | Time taken for the whole scan (mean and range) |
| Exposure time | Time taken only when the X-rays generation is occurring (mean and range) | |
| Reconstruction time | Time taken for the volume reconstruction (mean and range) | |
| Radiation dose | Dose index | Range of RDSR-compliant dose index values (preferably dose-area product, possibly dose-length product), considering low- and high-dose protocols |
| Effective dose | Range of effective dose (in µSv) calculated in an appropriate phantom, considering low- and high-dose protocols |
CBCT, cone beam CT; FOV: field of view; RDSR: radiation dose structured report; µSv: micro-sieverts;kV: kilovoltage; mA: miliamper.
a
Importantly, for hybrid machines, the CBCT features should be reported separately from those of cephalometric and panoramic imaging.