The effect of delay time processing on exposure index in X-ray examination

Delay time processing is the time lag between exposure and image processing. In general, after an X-ray examination, the Imaging Plate is not immediately processed after exposure is carried out because the location of the X-ray examination room and the processing room are not close together so that the time lag occurs and allows the imaging plate to have an impact on the exposure index value. The exposure index is a measure of the amount of exposure received by the image receptor. This research aims to determine the effect of delay time processing on the exposure index. The research design was an experiment with a variation of the delay time of 1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes. The results of the experiment can show that the longer the delay time processing will result in a decreased exposure index value. For the longest delay processing time, which is 20 minutes, produces an exposure index of (0.84 ± 0.05) X 10³. The decrease in the value of the exposure index is a result of electron activity. When exposed to X-rays, the electrons in IP are raised to a higher energy level and processed there for processing. Over time, some of these electrons return to a lower energy state, resulting in decay of the latent image.