What happens to spatial resolution as slice thickness increases?

• A. Spatial resolution increases
• B. It remains unchanged
• C. Spatial resolution decreases
• D. Spatial resolution fluctuates

Answer: (C)

As slice thickness increases, spatial resolution decreases due to a phenomenon often described as loss of detail or clarity in the images produced. Spatial resolution refers to the ability to distinguish between small structures in an image and is heavily influenced by the slice thickness. Thicker slices capture a larger volume of tissue, which can cause adjacent structures to blur and merge into a single image, making it harder to differentiate between them. Hence, with thicker slices, anatomical details may be obscured, leading to a lower spatial resolution. This decline occurs because the thicker slice averages out more tissue within a given voxel, reducing the sharpness and detail that can be depicted in the imaging.