A Clinically Driven Task-Based Comparison of Photon Counting and Conventional Energy Integrating CT for Soft Tissue, Vascular, and High-Resolution Tasks

Jayasai R. Rajagopal; Pooyan Sahbaee; Faraz Farhadi; Justin B. Solomon; Juan Carlos Ramirez-Giraldo; William F. Pritchard; Bradford J. Wood; Elizabeth C. Jones; Ehsan Samei

doi:10.1109/TRPMS.2020.3019954

A Clinically Driven Task-Based Comparison of Photon Counting and Conventional Energy Integrating CT for Soft Tissue, Vascular, and High-Resolution Tasks

Jayasai R. Rajagopal, Pooyan Sahbaee, Faraz Farhadi, Justin B. Solomon, Juan Carlos Ramirez-Giraldo, William F. Pritchard, Bradford J. Wood, Elizabeth C. Jones, Ehsan Samei

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

Photon-counting CT (PCCT) detectors are the next step in advancing CT system development and will replace the current energy-integrating detectors (EIDs) in CT systems in the near future. In this context, the performance of PCCT was compared to EID CT for three clinically relevant tasks: 1) abdominal soft tissue imaging, where differentiating low contrast features is important; 2) vascular imaging, where iodine detectability is critical; and 3) high-resolution skeletal and lung imaging. A multitiered phantom was imaged on an investigational clinical PCCT system (Siemens Healthineers) across different doses using three imaging modes: macro and ultrahigh resolution (UHR) PCCT modes and EID CT. Images were reconstructed using filtered backprojection and soft tissue (B30f), vascular (B46f), or high-resolution (B70f; U70f for UHR) kernels. Noise power spectra, task transfer functions, and detectability index were evaluated. For a soft tissue task, PCCT modes showed comparable noise and resolution with improved contrast-to-noise ratio. For a vascular task, PCCT modes showed lower noise and improved iodine detectability. For a high resolution task, macro mode showed lower noise and comparable resolution while UHR mode showed higher noise but improved spatial resolution for both air and bone. PCCT offers competitive advantages to EID CT for clinical tasks.

Original language	English
Article number	9178769
Pages (from-to)	588-595
Number of pages	8
Journal	IEEE Transactions on Radiation and Plasma Medical Sciences
Volume	5
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/TRPMS.2020.3019954
State	Published - Jul 2021
Externally published	Yes

Funding

Manuscript received January 15, 2020; revised May 29, 2020; accepted July 27, 2020. Date of publication August 27, 2020; date of current version July 2, 2021. This work was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center Radiology and Imaging Sciences under Grant R01EB001838 and Grant R01HL131753; in part by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; and in part by the NIH Graduate Partnership Program and the NIH Intramural Research Program under Grant Z01 1ZID BC011242 and Grant CL040015. (Corresponding author: Ehsan Samei.) Jayasai R. Rajagopal is with the Carl E. Ravin Advanced Imaging Laboratories, Medical Physics Graduate Program, Duke University, Durham, NC 27705 USA, and also with the Radiology and Imaging Sciences, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD 20892 USA (e-mail: [email protected]).

Keywords

Clinical imaging systems
energy-integrating detector (EID)
image quality
phantom
photodetector technology
photon-counting CT (PCCT)
task-based

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10.1109/TRPMS.2020.3019954

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Rajagopal, J. R., Sahbaee, P., Farhadi, F., Solomon, J. B., Ramirez-Giraldo, J. C., Pritchard, W. F., Wood, B. J., Jones, E. C., & Samei, E. (2021). A Clinically Driven Task-Based Comparison of Photon Counting and Conventional Energy Integrating CT for Soft Tissue, Vascular, and High-Resolution Tasks. IEEE Transactions on Radiation and Plasma Medical Sciences, 5(4), 588-595. Article 9178769. https://doi.org/10.1109/TRPMS.2020.3019954

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abstract = "Photon-counting CT (PCCT) detectors are the next step in advancing CT system development and will replace the current energy-integrating detectors (EIDs) in CT systems in the near future. In this context, the performance of PCCT was compared to EID CT for three clinically relevant tasks: 1) abdominal soft tissue imaging, where differentiating low contrast features is important; 2) vascular imaging, where iodine detectability is critical; and 3) high-resolution skeletal and lung imaging. A multitiered phantom was imaged on an investigational clinical PCCT system (Siemens Healthineers) across different doses using three imaging modes: macro and ultrahigh resolution (UHR) PCCT modes and EID CT. Images were reconstructed using filtered backprojection and soft tissue (B30f), vascular (B46f), or high-resolution (B70f; U70f for UHR) kernels. Noise power spectra, task transfer functions, and detectability index were evaluated. For a soft tissue task, PCCT modes showed comparable noise and resolution with improved contrast-to-noise ratio. For a vascular task, PCCT modes showed lower noise and improved iodine detectability. For a high resolution task, macro mode showed lower noise and comparable resolution while UHR mode showed higher noise but improved spatial resolution for both air and bone. PCCT offers competitive advantages to EID CT for clinical tasks.",

keywords = "Clinical imaging systems, energy-integrating detector (EID), image quality, phantom, photodetector technology, photon-counting CT (PCCT), task-based",

author = "Rajagopal, {Jayasai R.} and Pooyan Sahbaee and Faraz Farhadi and Solomon, {Justin B.} and Ramirez-Giraldo, {Juan Carlos} and Pritchard, {William F.} and Wood, {Bradford J.} and Jones, {Elizabeth C.} and Ehsan Samei",

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year = "2021",

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doi = "10.1109/TRPMS.2020.3019954",

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Rajagopal, JR, Sahbaee, P, Farhadi, F, Solomon, JB, Ramirez-Giraldo, JC, Pritchard, WF, Wood, BJ, Jones, EC & Samei, E 2021, 'A Clinically Driven Task-Based Comparison of Photon Counting and Conventional Energy Integrating CT for Soft Tissue, Vascular, and High-Resolution Tasks', IEEE Transactions on Radiation and Plasma Medical Sciences, vol. 5, no. 4, 9178769, pp. 588-595. https://doi.org/10.1109/TRPMS.2020.3019954

A Clinically Driven Task-Based Comparison of Photon Counting and Conventional Energy Integrating CT for Soft Tissue, Vascular, and High-Resolution Tasks. / Rajagopal, Jayasai R.; Sahbaee, Pooyan; Farhadi, Faraz et al.
In: IEEE Transactions on Radiation and Plasma Medical Sciences, Vol. 5, No. 4, 9178769, 07.2021, p. 588-595.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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A Clinically Driven Task-Based Comparison of Photon Counting and Conventional Energy Integrating CT for Soft Tissue, Vascular, and High-Resolution Tasks

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