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Feasibility of unconstrained three-material decomposition: imaging an excised human heart using a prototype silicon photon-counting CT detector

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of unconstrained three-material decomposition in a human tissue specimen containing iodinated contrast agent, using an experimental multi-bin photon-counting silicon detector. It was further to evaluate potential add...

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Autores principales: Grönberg, Fredrik, Lundberg, Johan, Sjölin, Martin, Persson, Mats, Bujila, Robert, Bornefalk, Hans, Almqvist, Håkan, Holmin, Staffan, Danielsson, Mats
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7554013/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32588212
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00330-020-07017-y
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author Grönberg, Fredrik
Lundberg, Johan
Sjölin, Martin
Persson, Mats
Bujila, Robert
Bornefalk, Hans
Almqvist, Håkan
Holmin, Staffan
Danielsson, Mats
author_facet Grönberg, Fredrik
Lundberg, Johan
Sjölin, Martin
Persson, Mats
Bujila, Robert
Bornefalk, Hans
Almqvist, Håkan
Holmin, Staffan
Danielsson, Mats
author_sort Grönberg, Fredrik
collection PubMed
description RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of unconstrained three-material decomposition in a human tissue specimen containing iodinated contrast agent, using an experimental multi-bin photon-counting silicon detector. It was further to evaluate potential added clinical value compared to a 1st-generation state-of-the-art dual-energy computed tomography system. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prototype photon-counting silicon detector in a bench-top setup for x-ray tomographic imaging was calibrated using a multi-material calibration phantom. A heart with calcified plaque was obtained from a deceased patient, and the coronary arteries were injected with an iodinated contrast agent mixed with gelatin. The heart was imaged in the experimental setup and on a 1st-generation state-of-the-art dual-energy computed tomography system. Projection-based three-material decomposition without any constraints was performed with the photon-counting detector data, and the resulting images were compared with those obtained from the dual-energy system. RESULTS: The photon-counting detector images show better separation of iodine and calcium compared to the dual-energy images. Additional experiments confirmed that unbiased estimates of soft tissue, calcium, and iodine could be achieved without any constraints. CONCLUSION: The proposed experimental system could provide added clinical value compared to current dual-energy systems for imaging tasks where mix-up of iodine and calcium is an issue, and the anatomy is sufficiently small to allow iodine to be differentiated from calcium. Considering its previously shown count rate capability, these results show promise for future integration of this detector in a clinical CT scanner. KEY POINTS: • Spectral photon-counting detectors can solve some of the fundamental problems with conventional single-energy CT. • Dual-energy methods can be used to differentiate iodine and calcium, but to do so must rely on constraints, since solving for three unknowns with only two measurements is not possible. Photon-counting detectors can improve upon these methods by allowing unconstrained three-material decomposition. • A prototype photon-counting silicon detector with high count rate capability allows performing unconstrained three-material decomposition and qualitatively shows better differentiation of iodine and calcium than dual-energy CT.
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spelling pubmed-75540132020-10-19 Feasibility of unconstrained three-material decomposition: imaging an excised human heart using a prototype silicon photon-counting CT detector Grönberg, Fredrik Lundberg, Johan Sjölin, Martin Persson, Mats Bujila, Robert Bornefalk, Hans Almqvist, Håkan Holmin, Staffan Danielsson, Mats Eur Radiol Experimental RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of unconstrained three-material decomposition in a human tissue specimen containing iodinated contrast agent, using an experimental multi-bin photon-counting silicon detector. It was further to evaluate potential added clinical value compared to a 1st-generation state-of-the-art dual-energy computed tomography system. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prototype photon-counting silicon detector in a bench-top setup for x-ray tomographic imaging was calibrated using a multi-material calibration phantom. A heart with calcified plaque was obtained from a deceased patient, and the coronary arteries were injected with an iodinated contrast agent mixed with gelatin. The heart was imaged in the experimental setup and on a 1st-generation state-of-the-art dual-energy computed tomography system. Projection-based three-material decomposition without any constraints was performed with the photon-counting detector data, and the resulting images were compared with those obtained from the dual-energy system. RESULTS: The photon-counting detector images show better separation of iodine and calcium compared to the dual-energy images. Additional experiments confirmed that unbiased estimates of soft tissue, calcium, and iodine could be achieved without any constraints. CONCLUSION: The proposed experimental system could provide added clinical value compared to current dual-energy systems for imaging tasks where mix-up of iodine and calcium is an issue, and the anatomy is sufficiently small to allow iodine to be differentiated from calcium. Considering its previously shown count rate capability, these results show promise for future integration of this detector in a clinical CT scanner. KEY POINTS: • Spectral photon-counting detectors can solve some of the fundamental problems with conventional single-energy CT. • Dual-energy methods can be used to differentiate iodine and calcium, but to do so must rely on constraints, since solving for three unknowns with only two measurements is not possible. Photon-counting detectors can improve upon these methods by allowing unconstrained three-material decomposition. • A prototype photon-counting silicon detector with high count rate capability allows performing unconstrained three-material decomposition and qualitatively shows better differentiation of iodine and calcium than dual-energy CT. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2020-06-25 2020 /pmc/articles/PMC7554013/ /pubmed/32588212 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00330-020-07017-y Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Experimental
Grönberg, Fredrik
Lundberg, Johan
Sjölin, Martin
Persson, Mats
Bujila, Robert
Bornefalk, Hans
Almqvist, Håkan
Holmin, Staffan
Danielsson, Mats
Feasibility of unconstrained three-material decomposition: imaging an excised human heart using a prototype silicon photon-counting CT detector
title Feasibility of unconstrained three-material decomposition: imaging an excised human heart using a prototype silicon photon-counting CT detector
title_full Feasibility of unconstrained three-material decomposition: imaging an excised human heart using a prototype silicon photon-counting CT detector
title_fullStr Feasibility of unconstrained three-material decomposition: imaging an excised human heart using a prototype silicon photon-counting CT detector
title_full_unstemmed Feasibility of unconstrained three-material decomposition: imaging an excised human heart using a prototype silicon photon-counting CT detector
title_short Feasibility of unconstrained three-material decomposition: imaging an excised human heart using a prototype silicon photon-counting CT detector
title_sort feasibility of unconstrained three-material decomposition: imaging an excised human heart using a prototype silicon photon-counting ct detector
topic Experimental
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7554013/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32588212
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00330-020-07017-y
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