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Quantitative Analysis Methodology of X-Ray Attenuation for Medical Diagnostic Imaging: Algorithm to Derive Effective Atomic Number, Soft Tissue and Bone Images

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Photon Counting Computed Tomography

Abstract

Energy-resolving photon-counting detector (ERPCD) has been expected to play an important role in drastically improving X-ray image generation in medical and industrial fields. The biggest advantage of ERPCD is to analyze X-ray energy information, and it has the potential to produce various quantitative images based on the energy-dependent analysis of X-ray attenuation in an object. In order to realize accurate energy-dependent analyses, we have to solve the issues of beam hardening effect and detector response caused by the restrictions of applying polychromatic X-rays and multi-pixel-type detectors which cannot absorb X-ray energies completely. In this chapter, we clarified these effects and introduced a novel method to correct these effects. This correction can realize ideal analysis in which polychromatic X-rays measured with an ERPCD can be treated as those equivalent to monochromatic X-rays. As an application demonstrating the effectiveness of this analysis, we succeeded in the derivation of effective atomic number images and mass thickness images related to soft tissue and bone. These findings presented in this chapter are based on the physics of X-ray attenuation, and we hope to contribute these findings as the basis for all imaging techniques using ERPCD.

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Acknowledgments

The description in this chapter was partially supported by collaborative research between Kanazawa University and JOB CORPORATION (https://www.job-image.com/), Japan. The authors wish to express gratitude to members of JOB CORPORATION, Dr. Shuichiro Yamamoto, Mr. Masahiro Okada, Mr. Fumio Tsuchiya, Mr. Daisuke Hashimoto, Mr. Yasuhiro Kuramoto, and Mr. Masashi Yamasaki for their valuable contributions. We wish to thank Mr. Takumi Asakawa, GE Healthcare Japan for his important research results when he belonged to graduate school in Kanazawa University, Japan. We would like to thank Dr. Yuki Kanazawa, Tokushima University, Japan, for discussing the feasibility of our research from a clinical point of view. We would also like to thank Dr. Yoshie Kodera and Dr. Shuji Koyama, Nagoya University, Japan, for discussing the clinical application of a photon-counting detector.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Medical, Pharmaceutical and Health Sciences, Kanazawa University, Ishikawa, Japan

    Natsumi Kimoto & Hiroaki Hayashi

  2. Job Corporation, Kanagawa, Japan

    Natsumi Kimoto

  3. Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kanazawa University, Ishikawa, Japan

    Cheonghae Lee, Tatsuya Maeda, Daiki Kobayashi & Rina Nishigami

  4. Department of Oral Radiology, Asahi University, Gifu, Japan

    Akitoshi Katsumata

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  1. Natsumi Kimoto
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

    Scott Hsieh

  2. Emerging Technologies CMOS Inc., Port Moody, BC, Canada

    Krzysztof (Kris) Iniewski

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Kimoto, N. et al. (2023). Quantitative Analysis Methodology of X-Ray Attenuation for Medical Diagnostic Imaging: Algorithm to Derive Effective Atomic Number, Soft Tissue and Bone Images. In: Hsieh, S., Iniewski, K.(. (eds) Photon Counting Computed Tomography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26062-9_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26062-9_11

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