Low-dose energy-resolved X-ray computed tomography using a filter-changing two-dimensional transXend detector

ABSTRACT

A novel detector system ‘transXend’ detector, which measured X-rays as electric current and output the energy distribution of X-rays after analysis, has been developed by the authors. With computed tomography (CT) by using the transXend detector, CT image was given in the absolute value of linear attenuation coefficient as a function of X-ray energy and the effective atomic number distribution in a subject was obtained. For the X-ray CT of a large object such as a human body, the development of a two-dimensional transXend detector is necessary and the authors proposed a filter-changing transXend detector previously. The exposure dose to the subject, however, increased due to the multiple inspections with various X-ray spectra tailored by each filter. To reduce the exposure dose, a method is proposed to synchronize filter changes with changes of the inspection angle of the subject. With this method, the exposure dose can be reduced nearly 50% compared to a conventional electric current measurement CT.

KEYWORDS:

• X-ray
• computed tomography
• energy-resolved
• low-exposure dose
• experiment

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Mr. T. Kuroyama, Kyoto University, for his fruitful discussions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article. The authors are grateful to The Kansai Atomic Conference for financial support.