A 28-year-old healthcare worker undergoes routine tuberculos…

A 28-year-old healthcare worker undergoes routine tuberculosis (TB) screening and has a positive tuberculin skin test (TST) but denies cough, fever, weight loss, or night sweats. A chest X-ray is normal, and sputum cultures are negative for Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The patient is concerned about transmitting TB to others and asks if they are contagious. The healthcare provider informed the patient he likely has latent TB and can transmit the infection.

An x-ray tube emits 1014 photons per second. The x-ray is as…

An x-ray tube emits 1014 photons per second. The x-ray is assumed to contain only 50-keV photons and irradiates a 0.2-mm-thick tissue sample for 0.2 second. The HVL of the sample is 0.8 cm, and the energy absorption coefficient of the sample is 0.1 cm−1 for 50-keV photons.