Photon counting detectors (PCDs) with energy discrimination capabilities have been developed for medical x-ray computed tomography (CT) and x-ray (XR) imaging. Using detection mechanisms that are completely different from the current energy integrating detectors and measuring the material information of the object to be imaged, these PCDs have the potential not only to improve the current CT and XR images, such as dose reduction, but also to open revolutionary novel applications such as molecular CT and XR imaging. The performance of PCDs is not flawless, however, and it seems extremely challenging to develop PCDs with close to ideal characteristics. In this paper, the authors offer our vision for the future of PCD-CT and PCD-XR with the review of the current status and the prediction of (1) detector technologies, (2) imaging technologies, (3) system technologies, and (4) potential clinical benefits with PCDs.

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Vision 20/20: Single photon counting x-ray detectors in medical imaging

Substantial developments have been achieved in the synthesis of chemical vapour deposition (CVD) diamond in recent years, providing engineers and designers with access to a large range of new diamond materials. CVD diamond has a number of outstanding material properties that can enable exceptional performance in applications as diverse as medical diagnostics, water treatment, radiation detection, high power electronics, consumer audio, magnetometry and novel lasers. Often the material is synthesized in planar form; however, non-planar geometries are also possible and enable a number of key applications. This paper reviews the material properties and characteristics of single crystal and polycrystalline CVD diamond, and how these can be utilized, focusing particularly on optics, electronics and electrochemistry. It also summarizes how CVD diamond can be tailored for specific applications, on the basis of the ability to synthesize a consistent and engineered high performance product.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0953-8984/21/36/364221/pdf

Chemical vapour deposition synthetic diamond: materials, technology and applications.

Mammography is a very well-established imaging modality for the early detection and diagnosis of breast cancer. However, since the introduction of digital imaging to the realm of radiology, more advanced, and especially tomographic imaging methods have been made possible. One of these methods, breast tomosynthesis, has finally been introduced to the clinic for routine everyday use, with potential to in the future replace mammography for screening for breast cancer. In this two part paper, the extensive research performed during the development of breast tomosynthesis is reviewed, with a focus on the research addressing the medical physics aspects of this imaging modality. This first paper will review the research performed on the issues relevant to the image acquisition process, including system design, optimization of geometry and technique, x-ray scatter, and radiation dose. The companion to this paper will review all other aspects of breast tomosynthesis imaging, including the reconstruction process.

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A review of breast tomosynthesis. Part I. The image acquisition process.

Despite universal consensus that computed tomography (CT) overwhelmingly benefits patients when used for appropriate indications, concerns have been raised regarding the potential risk of cancer induction from CT due to the exponentially increased use of CT in medicine Keeping radiation dose as low as reasonably achievable, consistent with the diagnostic task, remains the most important strategy for decreasing this potential risk This article summarizes the general technical strategies that are commonly used for radiation dose management in CT Dose-management strategies for pediatric CT, cardiac CT, dual-energy CT, CT perfusion and interventional CT are specifically discussed, and future perspectives on CT dose reduction are presented

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Radiation dose reduction in computed tomography: techniques and future perspective

The development of an innovative detector technology for photon-counting in X-ray imaging is reported. This new generation of detectors, based on pixellated cadmium telluride (CdTe) and cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) detector arrays electrically connected to application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for readout, will produce fast and highly efficient photon-counting and energy-dispersive X-ray imaging. There are a number of applications that can greatly benefit from these novel imagers including mammography, planar radiography, and computed tomography (CT). Systems based on this new detector technology can provide compositional analysis of tissue through spectroscopic X-ray imaging, significantly improve overall image quality, and may significantly reduce X-ray dose to the patient. A very high X-ray flux is utilized in many of these applications. For example, CT scanners can produce ~ 100 Mphotons/mm2 /s in the unattenuated beam. High flux is required in order to collect sufficient photon statistics in the measurement of the transmitted flux (attenuated beam) during the very short time frame of a CT scan. This high count rate combined with a need for high detection efficiency requires the development of detector structures that can provide a response signal much faster than the transit time of carriers over the whole detector thickness. We have developed CdTe and CZT detector array structures which are 3 mm thick with 16 times 16 pixels and a 1 mm pixel pitch. These structures, in the two different implementations presented here, utilize either a small pixel effect or a drift phenomenon. An energy resolution of 4.75% at 122 keV has been obtained with a 30 ns peaking time using discrete electronics and a 57Co source. An output rate of 6 times 106 counts per second per individual pixel has been obtained with our ASIC readout electronics and a clinical CT X-ray tube. Additionally, the first clinical CT images, taken with several of our prototype photon-counting and energy-dispersive detector modules, are shown.

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Photon Counting Energy Dispersive Detector Arrays for X-ray Imaging

An evaluation of the dependence of detective quantum efficiency (DQE) on the incident energy spectrum has been made for mammography. The DQE dependence on the energy spectrum has been evaluated for energy-integrating detectors, photon-counting detectors, and detectors that measure the energy of each photon. To isolate the effect of the x-ray energy spectrum the detector has been assumed to be ideal, i.e., all noise sources are assumed to be zero except for quantum fluctuations. The result shows that the improvement in DQE, if the energy-integrating detector is compared to a single-photon counting detector, is of the order of 10%. Comparing the energy-integrating detector and the detector measuring the energy for each photon the improvement is around 30% using a molybdenum anode spectrum typical in mammography. It is shown that the optimal weight factors to combine the data in the case the energy is measured are very well approximated if the weight factors are proportional to E(-3). Another conclusion is that in calculating the DQE, a detector should be compared to one that uses ideal energy weighting for each photon since this provides the best signal-to-noise ratio. This has generally been neglected in the literature.

Detective quantum efficiency dependence on x-ray energy weighting in mammography

A photon-counting silicon strip detector with two energy thresholds was investigated for spectral X-ray imaging in a mammography system. Preliminary studies already indicate clinical benefit of the ...

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Energy resolution of a photon-counting silicon strip detector

The physical performance of a scanning multislit full field digital mammography system was determined using basic image quality parameters. The system employs a direct detection detector comprise ...

Physical characterization of a scanning photon counting digital mammography system based on Si-strip detectors.

The scatter to primary ratio (SPR) was measured on a scanning multislit full-field digital mammography system for different thickness of breast equivalent material and different tube voltages. Scatter within the detector was measured separately and was found to be the major source of scatter in the assembly. Measured total SPRs below 6% are reported for breast range 3-7 cm. The performance of the multislit assembly is compared to other imaging geometries with different scatter rejection schemes by using the scatter detective quantum efficiency.

Scatter rejection in multislit digital mammography

Purpose: Spectral imaging is a method in medical x-ray imaging to extract information about the object constituents by the material-specific energy dependence of x-ray attenuation. In particular, t ...

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Björn Cederström

Papers

Detective quantum efficiency dependence on x-ray energy weighting in mammography

Energy resolution of a photon-counting silicon strip detector

Physical characterization of a scanning photon counting digital mammography system based on Si-strip detectors.

Scatter rejection in multislit digital mammography

Contrast-enhanced spectral mammography with a photon-counting detector