@inproceedings{0614ee659d444f31929ce3eecd9032a8,
title = "Initial results from a prototype whole-body photon-counting computed tomography system",
abstract = "X-ray computed tomography (CT) with energy-discriminating capabilities presents exciting opportunities for increased dose efficiency and improved material decomposition analyses. However, due to constraints imposed by the inability of photon-counting detectors (PCD) to respond accurately at high photon flux, to date there has been no clinical application of PCD-CT. Recently, our lab installed a research prototype system consisting of two x-ray sources and two corresponding detectors, one using an energy-integrating detector (EID) and the other using a PCD. In this work, we report the first third-party evaluation of this prototype CT system using both phantoms and a cadaver head. The phantom studies demonstrated several promising characteristics of the PCD sub-system, including improved longitudinal spatial resolution and reduced beam hardening artifacts, relative to the EID sub-system. More importantly, we found that the PCD sub-system offers excellent pulse pileup control in cases of x-ray flux up to 550 mA at 140 kV, which corresponds to approximately 2.5×1011 photons per cm2 per second. In an anthropomorphic phantom and a cadaver head, the PCD sub-system provided image quality comparable to the EID sub-system for the same dose level. Our results demonstrate the potential of the prototype system to produce clinically-acceptable images in vivo.",
keywords = "Photon-counting CT, Research prototype, System evaluation",
author = "Z. Yu and S. Leng and Jorgensen, {S. M.} and Z. Li and R. Gutjahr and B. Chen and X. Duan and Halaweish, {A. F.} and L. Yu and Ritman, {E. L.} and McCollough, {C. H.}",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2015 SPIE.; Medical Imaging 2015: Physics of Medical Imaging ; Conference date: 22-02-2015 Through 25-02-2015",
year = "2015",
doi = "10.1117/12.2082739",
language = "English (US)",
series = "Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE",
publisher = "SPIE",
editor = "Christoph Hoeschen and Despina Kontos and Christoph Hoeschen",
booktitle = "Medical Imaging 2015",
}