Effect of extended field-of-view approaches on the accuracy of stopping power ratio estimation for single-energy computed tomography simulators.

Background: Extended field-of-view (eFOV) methods have been proposed to generate larger demonstration FOVs for computed tomography (CT) simulators with a limited scanning FOV (sFOV) size in order to ensure accurate dose calculation and patient collision avoidance. Although the efficacy of these strategies has been evaluated for photon applications, the effect of stopping power ratio (SPR) estimation on proton therapy has not been studied. This study investigated the effect of an eFOV approach on the accuracy of SPR to water estimation in homogeneous and heterogeneous phantoms.

Materials And Methods: To simulate patient geometries, tissue-equivalent material (TEM) and customized extension phantoms were used. The TEM phantom supported various rod arrangements through predefined holes. Images were reconstructed to three FOV sizes using a commercial eFOV technique. A single-energy CT stoichiometric method was used to generate Hounsfield unit (HU) to SPR (HU-to-SPR) conversion curves for each FOV. To investigate the effect of rod location in the sFOV and eFOV regions, eight TEM rods were placed at off-center distances in the homogeneous phantom and scanned individually. Similarly, 16 TEM rods were placed in the heterogeneous TEM phantom and scanned simultaneously.

Results: The conversion curves derived from the sFOV and eFOV data were identical. The average SPR differences of soft-tissue, bone, and lung materials for rods placed at various off-center locations were 3.3%, 4.8%, and 39.6%, respectively. In the heterogeneous phantom, the difference was within 1.0% in the absence of extension. However, in the presence of extension, the difference increased to 2.8% for all rods, except for lung materials, whose difference was 4.8%.

Conclusions: When an eFOV method is used, the SPR variation in phantoms considerably increases for all TEM rods, especially for lung TEM rods. This phenomenon may substantially increase the uncertainty of HU-to-SPR conversion. Therefore, image reconstruction with a standard FOV size is recommended.