Photon-counting X-ray Computed Tomography Using a Cadmium Telluride Flat Panel Detector with High Spatial Resolutions and Dual-energy Selection

Introduction: To perform energy-dispersive X-ray imaging, we constructed a photon-counting X-ray computed tomography (CT) scanner to perform enhanced K-edge CT. Methods: X-ray photons penetrating through an object were detected using a cadmium telluride flat panel detector (FPD) with pixel dimensions of 100 x 100 mm[sup.2], and 720 radiograms from the FPD were sent to the personal computer to reconstruct tomograms. Gadolinium (Gd) K-edge energy is 50.2 keV, and Gd-Kedge CT was carried out using photons with an energy range of 50-100 keV. Results: Compared with low-energy CT of 15-50 keV, the gray density of muscle and bone substantially decreased, and the image contrast of Gd media was improved utilizing Gd-K-edge CT. Conclusion: Using the cone beam, the effective pixel dimensions were 80 x 80 μm[sup.2], and blood vessels were observed at a high contrast using Gd-Kedge CT. Keywords: Cadmium telluride flat panel detector, dual-energy selection, gadolinium-K-edge computed tomography, high spatial resolution, photon-counting computed tomography, threshold energy
Author(s): Jiro Sato [1]; Eiichi Sato (corresponding author) [2]; Kazuki Ito [1]; Hodaka Moriyama [1]; Osahiko Hagiwara [1]; Toshiyuki Enomoto [1]; Manabu Watanabe [1]; Sohei Yoshida [3]; Kunihiro Yoshioka [3]; [...]