Abstract
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential of a prototype photon-counting CT system scanner to characterize liver texture and lung lesion morphology features. We utilized a multi-tiered phantom (Mercury Phantom 4.0) to characterize the noise power spectrum and task-transfer functions of both conventional and photoncounting modes on the scanner. Using these metrics, we blurred three textures models and fifteen model lesions for four doses (CTDIvol: 4, 8, 16, 24 mGy), and three slice thicknesses (1.6, 2.5, 4 mm), for a total of 12 imaging conditions. Twenty texture features and twenty-one morphology features were evaluated. Performance was characterized in terms of accuracy (percent bias of features across different conditions) and variability (coefficient of variation of features due to repeats and averaged across conditions). Compared to conventional CT, photon-counting CT had comparable accuracy and variability for texture features. For morphology features, photon-counting CT had comparable accuracy and less variability than conventional CT. For both imaging modes, change in dose showed slight variation in features and increasing slice thickness caused a monotonic change with feature dependent directionality. Photon-counting CT can improve the characterization of morphology features without compromising texture features.
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | Medical Imaging 2019 |
| Subtitle of host publication | Physics of Medical Imaging |
| Editors | Taly Gilat Schmidt, Guang-Hong Chen, Hilde Bosmans |
| Publisher | SPIE |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781510625433 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2019 |
| Externally published | Yes |
| Event | Medical Imaging 2019: Physics of Medical Imaging - San Diego, United States Duration: Feb 17 2019 → Feb 20 2019 |
Publication series
| Name | Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE |
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| Volume | 10948 |
| ISSN (Print) | 1605-7422 |
Conference
| Conference | Medical Imaging 2019: Physics of Medical Imaging |
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| Country/Territory | United States |
| City | San Diego |
| Period | 02/17/19 → 02/20/19 |
Funding
This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center Radiology and Imaging Sciences (RADIS), the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) and the NIH Intramural Research Program (NIH Z01 1ZID BC011242, and CL040015). The NIH and Siemens Medical Solutions have a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement providing financial and material support including the photon-counting CT system. The content of this manuscript does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of Health and Human Services, nor do mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the United States Government.
Keywords
- Computed tomography
- Morphology
- Photon-counting
- Quantitative imaging
- Texture