High-resolution spiral CT of the breast at very low dose: concept and feasibility considerations

Kalender, Willi A.; Beister, Marcel; Boone, John M.; Kolditz, Daniel; Vollmar, Sabrina V.; Weigel, Michaela C. C.

doi:10.1007/s00330-011-2169-4

Cited by 117 publications

(119 citation statements)

References 24 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

118

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The recent development of photon-counting x-ray detectors capable of counting individual photons and sorting them by energy offers unique advantages in tissue characterization. 15,[27][28][29] A proper selection of the energy threshold can minimize the spectral overlap and allow simultaneous acquisition of the dual energy images within a single scan, which eliminates the risks of misregistration.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Breast tissue decomposition with spectral distortion correction: A postmortem study

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose: To investigate the feasibility of an accurate measurement of water, lipid, and protein composition of breast tissue using a photon-counting spectral computed tomography (CT) with spectral distortion corrections. Methods: Thirty-eight postmortem breasts were imaged with a cadmium-zinc-telluride-based photon-counting spectral CT system at 100 kV. The energy-resolving capability of the photon-counting detector was used to separate photons into low and high energy bins with a splitting energy of 42 keV. The estimated mean glandular dose for each breast ranged from 1.8 to 2.2 mGy. Two spectral distortion correction techniques were implemented, respectively, on the raw images to correct the nonlinear detector response due to pulse pileup and charge-sharing artifacts. Dual energy decomposition was then used to characterize each breast in terms of water, lipid, and protein content. In the meantime, the breasts were chemically decomposed into their respective water, lipid, and protein components to provide a gold standard for comparison with dual energy decomposition results. Results: The accuracy of the tissue compositional measurement with spectral CT was determined by comparing to the reference standard from chemical analysis. The averaged root-mean-square error in percentage composition was reduced from 15.5% to 2.8% after spectral distortion corrections. Conclusions:The results indicate that spectral CT can be used to quantify the water, lipid, and protein content in breast tissue. The accuracy of the compositional analysis depends on the applied spectral distortion correction technique. C 2014 American Association of Physicists in Medicine. [http://dx

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Breast tissue decomposition with spectral distortion correction: A postmortem study

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…System parameters, including optimized spectra and gantry geometry, have been extensively investigated by several research groups. 25,[27][28][29][30][31][32] An initial clinical study suggests that the cone beam breast CT is significantly better than mammography for visualization of soft tissue lesions. 26 A recent clinical study has also shown that breast CT has a significantly lower anatomical noise than mammography and breast tomosynthesis, providing the ultimate solution to eliminate the anatomical noise induced by overlap of the breast tissue.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurement of breast tissue composition with dual energy cone‐beam computed tomography: A postmortem study

2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose:To investigate the feasibility of a three-material compositional measurement of water, lipid, and protein content of breast tissue with dual kVp cone-beam computed tomography (CT) for diagnostic purposes. Methods: Simulations were performed on a flat panel-based computed tomography system with a dual kVp technique in order to guide the selection of experimental acquisition parameters. The expected errors induced by using the proposed calibration materials were also estimated by simulation. Twenty pairs of postmortem breast samples were imaged with a flat-panel based dual kVp cone-beam CT system, followed by image-based material decomposition using calibration data obtained from a three-material phantom consisting of water, vegetable oil, and polyoxymethylene plastic. The tissue samples were then chemically decomposed into their respective water, lipid, and protein contents after imaging to allow direct comparison with data from dual energy decomposition. Results: Guided by results from simulation, the beam energies for the dual kVp cone-beam CT system were selected to be 50 and 120 kVp with the mean glandular dose divided equally between each exposure. The simulation also suggested that the use of polyoxymethylene as the calibration material for the measurement of pure protein may introduce an error of −11.0%. However, the tissue decomposition experiments, which employed a calibration phantom made out of water, oil, and polyoxymethylene, exhibited strong correlation with data from the chemical analysis. The average root-mean-square percentage error for water, lipid, and protein contents was 3.58% as compared with chemical analysis. Conclusions:The results of this study suggest that the water, lipid, and protein contents can be accurately measured using dual kVp cone-beam CT. The tissue compositional information may improve the sensitivity and specificity for breast cancer diagnosis.

show abstract

“…Decomposition noise induced by image misregistration or spectral overlap may easily reduce the signal-to-noise ratio to the level where no reliable measurement can be obtained. Recent advances in spectral breast computed tomography (CT) based on energy-resolved photoncounting x-ray detectors offer unique advantages in such imaging tasks (22)(23)(24)(25)(26). Photon-counting detectors are able to count individual photons and sort them according to their energies with a typical energy resolution of a few kiloelectron-volts (27).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Breast Tissue Characterization with Photon-counting Spectral CT Imaging: A Postmortem Breast Study

Ding¹,

Klopfer²,

Ducote³

et al. 2014

Radiology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose:To investigate the feasibility of breast tissue characterization in terms of water, lipid, and protein contents with a spectral computed tomographic (CT) system based on a cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) photon-counting detector by using postmortem breasts. Materials and Methods:Nineteen pairs of postmortem breasts were imaged with a CZT-based photon-counting spectral CT system with beam energy of 100 kVp. The mean glandular dose was estimated to be in the range of 1.8-2.2 mGy. The images were corrected for pulse pile-up and other artifacts by using spectral distortion corrections. Dual-energy decomposition was then applied to characterize each breast into water, lipid, and protein contents. The precision of the three-compartment characterization was evaluated by comparing the composition of right and left breasts, where the standard error of the estimations was determined. The results of dual-energy decomposition were compared by using averaged root mean square to chemical analysis, which was used as the reference standard.

show abstract

High-resolution spiral CT of the breast at very low dose: concept and feasibility considerations

Abstract: Dedicated breast CT may eventually provide comprehensive diagnostic assessment of microcalcifications and soft-tissue structures at dose levels equivalent to or below those of two-view screening mammography.

Cited by 117 publications

References 24 publications

Breast tissue decomposition with spectral distortion correction: A postmortem study

Breast tissue decomposition with spectral distortion correction: A postmortem study

Measurement of breast tissue composition with dual energy cone‐beam computed tomography: A postmortem study

Breast Tissue Characterization with Photon-counting Spectral CT Imaging: A Postmortem Breast Study

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About