Dual-energy computed tomography is a novel imaging tool that has the potential to reduce beam hardening artifacts and
enhance material separation over conventional imaging techniques. Dual-energy acquisitions can be performed by using
a fast kVp technology to switch between acquiring adjacent projections at two distinct x-ray spectra (80 and 140 kVp).
These datasets can be used to further compute material density and monochromatic images for better material separation
and beam hardening reduction by virtue of the projection domain process. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the
feasibility of using dual-energy in cardiac imaging for myocardial perfusion detection and coronary artery lumen
visualization. Data was acquired on a heart phantom, which consisted of the chambers and aorta filled with Iodine
density solution (500 HU @ 120 kVp), a defect region between the aorta and chamber (40 HU @ 120 kVp), two Iodinefilled
vessels (400 HU @ 120 kVp) of different diameters with high attenuation (hydroxyapatite) plaques (HAP), and
with a 30-cm water equivalent body ring around the phantom. Prospective ECG-gated single-energy and prospective
ECG-gated dual-energy imaging was performed. Results showed that the generated monochromatic images had minimal
beam hardening artifacts which improved the accuracy and detection of the myocardial defect region. Material density
images were useful in differentiating and quantifying the actual size of the plaque and coronary artery lumen. Overall,
this study shows that dual-energy cardiac imaging will be a valuable tool for cardiac applications.
Dual energy computed tomography offers unique diagnostic value by enabling access to material density, effective
atomic number, and energy specific spectral characteristics, which remained indeterminate with conventional kVp
imaging. Gemstone Spectral Imaging (GSI) is one of the dual energy methods based on fast kVp switching between two
x-ray spectra, 80 kVp and 140 kVp nominal, in adjacent projections. The purpose of this study was to compare relative
dose between GSI monochromatic and conventional kVp imaging for equivalent image noise characteristics. A spatialfrequency
domain noise power spectrum (NPS) was used as a more complete noise descriptor for the comparison of the
two image types. Uniform 20cm water phantom images from GSI and conventional 120 kVp scans were used for NPS
calculation. In addition, a low contrast imaging study of the two image types with equivalent noise characteristics was
conducted for contrast-to-noise-ratio (CNR) and low contrast detectability (LCD) in the Catphan600® phantom. From
three GSI presets ranging from medium to low dose, we observed that conventional 120kVp scan requires ~ 7% -
18% increase in dose to match the noise characteristics in optimal noise GSI monochromatic image; and that the 65 keV
monochromatic image CNR for a 0.5% contrast object is 22% higher compared to corresponding 120 kVp scan. Optimal
use of the two energy spectra within GSI results in reduced noise and improved CNR in the monochromatic images,
indicating the potential for use of this image type in routine clinical applications.
Spectral CT research and development has recently become a hot topic in industry and in academia. Different
approaches have been developed for spectral CT imaging. As a result of the capability to generate monochromatic-energy
images, beam hardening artifacts have been largely reduced. However, X-ray scatter is still present, and the
associated scatter artifact can still be present in the base material images. This paper proposes an approach for scatter
artifact reduction for dual-energy CT. Phantoms as well as clinical data have been evaluated to demonstrate the
effectiveness of this approach.
Dual-energy CT has attracted much attention in recent years. Most recently, a fast-kVp switching
(FKS) dual-energy method has been presented with clinical and phantom results to demonstrate
its efficacy. The purpose of our study was to quantitatively compare the CTDIW of FKS and
routine CT exams under the body and head conditions. For a fair comparison, the low contrast
detectability (LCD) was matched before measuring dose. In FKS protocols, an x-ray generator
switch rapidly between 140kVp and 80kVp in adjacent views, and the effective tube current is
around 600mA. In addition to the tube voltage and current, the flux ratio between high and low
kVp is optimized by asymmetric sampling of 35%-65%. The head and body protocols further
differ by the gantry speed (0.9sec/1.0sec) and type of bowtie filter (head/body). For baseline
single-energy, we followed the IEC standard head and body protocols (120kV, 1sec, 5mm) but
iteratively adjusted the tube current (mA) in order to match the LCD. CTDIW was measured
using either a 16 cm (for head scanning) or a 32 cm (for body scanning) PMMA phantom of at
least 14 cm in length. The LCD was measured using the water section of Catphan 600. To make
the study repeatable, the automated statistical LCD measurement tool available on GE Discovery
CT750 scanner was used in this work. The mean CTDIW for the head and body single-energy
acquisitions were 57.5mGy and 29.2mGy, respectively. The LCD was measured at 0.45% and
0.42% (slice thickness=5mm, object size=3mm, central 4 images), respectively. The average
CTDIW for FKS head and body scans was 70.4mGy and 33.4mGy, respectively, at the optimal
monochromatic energy of 65 keV. The corresponding LCD was measured at 0.45% and 0.43%,
respectively. This demonstrates that, with matching LCD, CTDIW of FKS is comparable to that
of routine CT exams under head and body conditions.
Coronary CT Angiography (CTA) is limited in patients with calcified plaque and stents. CTA is unable to
confidently differentiate fibrous from lipid plaque. Fast switched dual energy CTA offers certain advantages. Dual
energy CTA removes calcium thereby improving visualization of the lumen and potentially providing a more
accurate measure of stenosis. Dual energy CTA directly measures calcium burden (calcium hydroxyapatite) thereby
eliminating a separate non-contrast series for Agatston Scoring. Using material basis pairs, the differentiation of
fibrous and lipid plaques is also possible.
Patency of a previously stented coronary artery is difficult to visualize with CTA due to resolution
constraints and localized beam hardening artifacts. Monochromatic 70 keV or Iodine images coupled with Virtual
Non-stent images lessen beam hardening artifact and blooming. Virtual removal of stainless steel stents improves
assessment of in-stent re-stenosis.
A beating heart phantom with 'cholesterol' and 'fibrous' phantom coronary plaques were imaged with dual
energy CTA. Statistical classification methods (SVM, kNN, and LDA) distinguished 'cholesterol' from 'fibrous'
phantom plaque tissue. Applying this classification method to 16 human soft plaques, a lipid 'burden' may be useful
for characterizing risk of coronary disease. We also found that dual energy CTA is more sensitive to iodine contrast
than conventional CTA which could improve the differentiation of myocardial infarct and ischemia on delayed
acquisitions.
These phantom and patient acquisitions show advantages with using fast switched dual energy CTA for
coronary imaging and potentially extends the use of CT for addressing problem areas of non-invasive evaluation of
coronary artery disease.
Compression of computed tomography (CT) projection data reduces CT scanner bandwidth and storage costs. Since
fixed-rate compression guarantees predictable bandwidth, fixed-rate compression is preferable to lossless compression,
but fixed-rate compression can introduce image artifacts. This research demonstrates clinically acceptable image quality
at 3:1 compression as judged by a radiologist and as estimated by an image quality metric called local structural
similarity (SSIM). We examine other common, quantitative image quality metrics from image processing, including
peak signal-to-noise (PSNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and difference image statistics to quantify the magnitude
and location of image artifacts caused by fixed-rate compression of CT projection data. Masking effects caused by local
contrast, air and bone pixels, and image reconstruction effects at the image's periphery and iso-center explain why
artifacts introduced by compression are not noticed by radiologists. SSIM metrics in this study nearly always exceeds
0.98 (even at 4:1 compression ratios), which is considered visually indistinguishable. The excellent correlation of local
SSIM and subjective image quality assessment confirms that fixed-rate 3:1 projection data compression on CT images
does not affect clinical diagnosis and is rarely noticed. Local SSIM metrics can be used to significantly reduce the
number of viewed images in medical image quality studies.
Compression of computed tomography (CT) projection samples reduces slip ring and disk drive costs. A lowcomplexity,
CT-optimized compression algorithm called Prism CTTM achieves at least 1.59:1 and up to 2.75:1 lossless
compression on twenty-six CT projection data sets. We compare the lossless compression performance of Prism CT to
alternative lossless coders, including Lempel-Ziv, Golomb-Rice, and Huffman coders using representative CT data sets.
Prism CT provides the best mean lossless compression ratio of 1.95:1 on the representative data set. Prism CT
compression can be integrated into existing slip rings using a single FPGA. Prism CT decompression operates at 100
Msamp/sec using one core of a dual-core Xeon CPU. We describe a methodology to evaluate the effects of lossy
compression on image quality to achieve even higher compression ratios. We conclude that lossless compression of raw
CT signals provides significant cost savings and performance improvements for slip rings and disk drive subsystems in
all CT machines. Lossy compression should be considered in future CT data acquisition subsystems because it provides
even more system benefits above lossless compression while achieving transparent diagnostic image quality. This result
is demonstrated on a limited dataset using appropriately selected compression ratios and an experienced radiologist.
KEYWORDS: Monte Carlo methods, Sensors, Computer simulations, Signal detection, Computed tomography, X-rays, X-ray computed tomography, Scanners, 3D modeling, Aluminum
We present a new simulation environment for X-ray computed tomography, called CatSim. CatSim provides a research platform for GE researchers and collaborators to explore new reconstruction algorithms, CT architectures, and X-ray source or detector technologies. The main requirements for this simulator are accurate physics modeling, low computation times, and geometrical flexibility. CatSim allows simulating complex analytic phantoms, such as the FORBILD phantoms, including boxes, ellipsoids, elliptical cylinders, cones, and cut planes. CatSim incorporates polychromaticity, realistic quantum and electronic noise models, finite focal spot size and shape, finite detector cell size, detector cross-talk, detector lag or afterglow, bowtie filtration, finite detector efficiency, non-linear partial volume, scatter (variance-reduced Monte Carlo), and absorbed dose. We present an overview of CatSim along with a number of validation experiments.
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