What role do pixels play in digital radiography?

Pixels are fundamental components in digital radiography because they are the smallest units of a digital image, each representing a specific area of the object being imaged. When an X-ray image is captured, the radiation interacts with a digital detector, such as a flat-panel detector or a computed radiography plate. This interaction generates a grid of pixels, where each pixel is assigned a specific grayscale value depending on the amount of radiation that has passed through the object.

These grayscale values correlate with the density and composition of the tissues being imaged, allowing for detailed visualization of structures within the body. The cumulative information from all the pixels creates the overall digital image that clinicians use for diagnosis and analysis. Thus, the significance of pixels lies in their role in encoding the spatial information of the anatomy, making option B the correct choice.