Final answer:
Partial volume averaging in CT imaging can result in decreased sharpness of edges, inaccurate CT numbers, and ghosting of tissue boundaries, all of which can impair diagnostic accuracy.
Step-by-step explanation:
Partial volume averaging is an artifact commonly encountered in computed tomography (CT) imaging that can lead to misrepresentation of tissue characteristics within a voxel. This occurs when a single voxel contains multiple types of tissue with different attenuation values which, after imaging, may appear as an averaged single CT number. The potential results of partial volume averaging include:
- Decreased sharpness of edges as boundaries between different tissues become less distinct.
- Inaccurate CT numbers, which may misrepresent the true attenuation of the tissues being imaged, leading to potential misdiagnosis.
- The presence of ghosting of tissue boundaries where distinctions between tissues are not portrayed accurately.
Each of these outcomes can affect the diagnostic accuracy of CT scans, thereby emphasizing the importance of mitigating partial volume effects in high-resolution imaging.