Multi-institutional Protocol Guidance for Pediatric Photon-counting CT.

Performing CT in children comes with unique challenges such as greater degrees of patient motion, smaller and densely packed anatomy, and potential risks of radiation exposure. The technical advancements of photon-counting detector (PCD) CT enable decreased radiation dose and noise, as well as increased spatial and contrast resolution across all ages, compared with conventional energy-integrating detector CT. It is therefore valuable to review the relevant technical aspects and principles specific to protocol development on the new PCD CT platform to realize the potential benefits for this population.

Exploration of the pulse pileup effects in a clinical CdTe-based photon-counting computed tomography.

Background: High tube current generates a high flux of x-rays to photon counting detectors (PCDs) that can potentially result in the piling up of pulses formed by concurrent photons, which can cause count loss and energy resolution degradation.

Purpose: To evaluate the performance of clinical photon-counting CT (PCCT) systems in high flux, potentially influenced by pulse pileup effects, in terms of task-generic image quality metrics.

Methods: A clinical phantom was scanned on a commercial PCCT scanner (NAEOTOM Alpha, Siemens) at 120 kV under fourteen different tube current levels (40-1000 mA) with a rotation time of 0.

Quantitative performance of photon-counting CT at low dose: Virtual monochromatic imaging and iodine quantification.

Background: Quantitative imaging techniques, such as virtual monochromatic imaging (VMI) and iodine quantification (IQ), have proven valuable diagnostic methods in several specific clinical tasks such as tumor and tissue differentiation. Recently, a new generation of computed tomography (CT) scanners equipped with photon-counting detectors (PCD) has reached clinical status.

Purpose: This work aimed to investigate the performance of a new photon-counting CT (PC-CT) in low-dose quantitative imaging tasks, comparing it to an earlier generation CT scanner with an energy-integrating detector dual-energy CT (DE-CT).

Pediatric Applications of Photon-Counting Detector CT.

Photon-counting detector (PCD) CT represents the most recent generational advance in CT technology. PCD CT has the potential to reduce image noise, improve spatial resolution and contrast resolution, and provide multispectral capability, all of which may be achieved with an overall decrease in the radiation dose. These effects may be used to reduce the iodinated contrast media dose and potentially obtain multiphase images through a single-acquisition technique.

Effect of tube current on computed tomography radiomic features.

Variability in the x-ray tube current used in computed tomography may affect quantitative features extracted from the images. To investigate these effects, we scanned the Credence Cartridge Radiomics phantom 12 times, varying the tube current from 25 to 300 mA∙s while keeping the other acquisition parameters constant. For each of the scans, we extracted 48 radiomic features from the categories of intensity histogram (n = 10), gray-level run length matrix (n = 11), gray-level co-occurrence matrix (n = 22), and neighborhood gray tone difference matrix (n = 5).