FACTORS THAT AFFECT X-RAY ENERGY

• Some factors that affect x-ray intensity have no effect on x-ray energy.
• Other factors affect both x-ray intensity and energy.
• As the kilovolt peak (kVp) is increased, so too is x-ray beam energy and therefore so too is the high voltage limit (HVL).
• An increase in kVp results in a shift of the emission spectrum toward the high-energy side, indicating an increase in the effective energy of the x-ray beam.
• The result of increasing kVp increases the energy of an x-ray beam.
• Increasing kVp increases the energy of an x-ray beam.
• The primary purpose of adding filtration to an x-ray beam is to remove selectively low-energy x-rays that have little chance of getting to the image receptor.
• The ideally filtered x-ray beam would be monoenergetic because such a beam would further reduce patient radiation dose.
• Unfortunately, such removal of regions of an x-ray beam is not normally possible.
• It is desirable to remove totally all x-rays below a certain energy determined by the type of x-ray emission.
• To improve image contrast, it is desirable to remove x-rays with energies above a certain level.