THE CHALLENGE
Spectral computed tomography (CT) systems are a critical diagnostic tool in medicine. CT machines use computerized x-ray imaging to produce cross-sectional images of the body. Improvements in CT imaging technologies can lower radiation exposure and support life-saving interventions. Current spectral systems can be expensive to implement and may provide only nominal information about an object’s material composition and color.
OUR SOLUTION
Dr. Ge Wang developed a combination detector that uses both photon integration and photon counting techniques to optimize Spectral CT to minimize patient radiation exposure while creating optimized imagery. The concept uses photon-counting elements to count photons within a window and outside a dynamically-changing window defined by thresholds during a scanning process.
A broad U.S. Patent has issued on the technology as noted in the exemplary Claim 1 below:
- An energy-sensitive or spectral computed tomography system comprising:
an X-ray source configured to emit X-ray beams at an object; one or more detectors configured to receive attenuated beams of the X-rays from an object for measuring projection data to generate spectral images in terms of energy-dependent linear attenuation coefficients; and said one or more detectors comprising one or more energy-integrating detector elements and one or more photon counting detector elements in one or more detector arrays; and at least one of said photon counting elements count the photons within a window and out of a window, and said window defined by one or more dynamically change-able thresholds to capture spectral information in one or more dynamically changeable windows, said windows defined by said thresholds during a scanning process.
Figure: Image showing a graph of photon counting process inside and outside dynamically-changing windows (110, 120, and 130).
