(p) The pitch (in computed tomography) is the ratio of the patient table increment to the total nominal beam width for the CT scan. The pitch factor relates the volume coverage speed to the thinnest sections that can be reconstructed. In spiral CT, dose is always inversely proportional to pitch.
Among the different manufacturers, there are various definitions of pitch depending on whether a single-detector (single-slice) or multi-detector (multi-slice) CT scanner is used.

The pitch factor is a selectable CT parameter. The definition depending on the IEC standards is the ratio of the table speed per rotation and the total collimation.
The choice of pitch factor is determined on practical considerations and on the availability of the computed tomography algorithms and parameters for image reconstruction.

See Pitch.

(CTDI) The computed tomography dose index is most commonly used dose descriptor, which represents the dose to a location (e.g., depth) in a scanned volume.
This index describes the dose from a single rotation of a CT scanner. CTDI must be corrected for pitch or couch increment to receive the dose for a series of slices. The CTDI100 is measured using a 100 mm long ionization chamber. The CTDIair is the value of CTDI determined free-in-air.
Different definitions of CTDI exist and are used in different applications.

Contrast is the relative difference of intensities in two adjacent regions of an image. When referring to computed tomography (CT), contrast is defined as a difference in Hounsfield units between structures. The measurement of contrast resolution in CT imaging involves determining how easy it is to differentiate tissues whose CT density is similar to that of their surroundings. An image lacks contrast when there are no sharp differences between black and white. Brightness refers to the overall lightness or darkness of an image.
The contrast between air, soft tissue, and bones in x-ray and CT images is based on their different absorption of x-rays. Differences in tissue density, thickness and changes of the x-ray spectrum have consequences for image contrast, image noise as well as patient dose.
Optimized tube current, collimation, pitch and image reconstruction improves the contrast. Higher image contrast is produced by increased slice thickness, smaller matrix, and large field of view which results in large voxel size; high mAs to reduce noise; low pass filter.

See also Contrast Enhanced Computed Tomography.