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SU‐FF‐I‐139: Low Dose Breast CT with Photon Counting Detectors: A Phantom Study
Author(s) -
Le H,
Ducote J,
Klopfer M,
Molloi S
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
medical physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.473
H-Index - 180
eISSN - 2473-4209
pISSN - 0094-2405
DOI - 10.1118/1.3181260
Subject(s) - detector , flat panel detector , imaging phantom , photon counting , optics , nuclear medicine , dot pitch , image quality , physics , breast imaging , contrast to noise ratio , photon , materials science , pixel , mammography , medicine , breast cancer , computer science , artificial intelligence , cancer , image (mathematics)
Purpose : To investigate image quality improvement of breast computed tomography (CT) using a photon counting detector as compared to an energy integrating flat panel detector. Method and Materials : A cone‐beam CT system was built that utilized a CsI‐based flat panel detector. The system consisted of a standard tungsten target x‐ray tube and a CsI indirect flat panel detector (Paxscan 4030CB) mounted on an optical bench. The photon counting CT system was built with the same setup, but with the flat panel detector replaced by a row of cadmium. (CZT) detector (eV2500, eV Products). The CZT detector consisted of 64 pixels with a pitch of 0.8 mm and five energy bins for spectral separation. A Lucite phantom (2.5 cm in diameter) was constructed with iodine and calcium contrast materials. Tomographic data were acquired with both systems and the contrast‐to‐noise ratio was compared. The data from CZT was energy weighted before analysis. Results : Image quality improved when comparing the CZT energy weighted images to flat panel images. The CNR improvements were 24% and 19% for calcium and iodine, respectively. Conclusions : Phantom results showed significant improvement in CNR for breast CT using an energy resolving photon counting detector as compared with an energy integrating flat panel detector.