CHARACTERIZATION OF TWO CT SYSTEMS USING A CHANNELIZED HOTELLING OBSERVER AND NPS METRIC

Lung dual energy CT: Impact of different technological solutions on quantitative analysis

PURPOSE

To evaluated the accuracy of spectral parameters quantification of four different CT scanners in dual energy examinations of the lung using a dedicated phantom.

METHOD

Measurements were made with different technologies of the same vendor: one dual source CT scanner (DSCT), one TwinBeam (i.e. split filter) and two sequential acquisition single source scanners (SSCT). Angular separation of Calcium and Iodine signals were calculated from scatter plots of low-kVp versus high-kVp HUs. Electron density (ρe), effective atomic number (Zeff) and Iodine concentration (Iconc) were measured using Syngo.via software. Accuracy (A) of ρe, Zeff and Iconc was evaluated as the absolute percentage difference (D%) between reference values and measured ones, while precision (P) was evaluated as the variability σ obtained by repeating the measurement with different acquisition/reconstruction settings.

RESULTS

Angular separation was significantly larger for DSCT (α = 9.7°) and for sequential SSCT (α = 9.9°) systems. TwinBeam was less performing in material separation (α = 5.0°). The lowest average A was observed for TwinBeam (A_ρe = [4.7 ± 1.0], A_Z = [9.1 ± 3.1], A_Iconc = [19.4 ± 4.4]), while the best average A was obtained for Flash (A_ρe = [1.8 ± 0.4], A_Z = [3.5 ± 0.7], A_Iconc = [7.3 ± 1.8]). TwinBeam presented inferior average P (P_ρe = [0.6 ± 0.1], P_Z = [1.1 ± 0.2], P_Iconc = [10.9 ± 4.9]), while other technologies demonstrate a comparable average.

CONCLUSIONS

Different technologies performed material separation and spectral parameter quantification with different degrees of accuracy and precision. DSCT performed better while TwinBeam demonstrated not excellent performance. Iodine concentration measurements exhibited high variability due to low Iodine absolute content in lung nodules, thus limiting its clinical usefulness in pulmonary applications.

Determination of DQE as a quantitative assessment of detectors in digital mammography: Measurements and calculation in practice

Introduction: Advances in digital detector technology and methods of image presentation in digital mammography now offer the possibility of implementing mathematical assessment methods to quantitative image analysis. The aim of this work was to develop new software to simplify the application of the existing international standard for DQE in digital mammography and show in detail how it can be applied, using a Siemens Mammomat Inspiration as a model.

Material and methods: Consistent with the IEC standard a 2 mm Al filter at the tube exit and images in DICOM format as raw data, without applying any additional post-processing were used. Measurements were performed for W/Rh anode/filter combination and different tube voltage values (26 ÷ 34 kV) without any anti-scatter grid. To verify new software doses ranging from 20-600 µGy were used in measurements. Exposure (air kerma) was measured using a calibrated radiation meter (Piranha Black 457, RTI Electronics AB, Sweden). MTF was determined, using an edge test device constructed specifically for this work.

Results: It has been demonstrated that with the new software the DQE can be measured with the accuracy required by the international standard IEC 62220-1-2. DQE has been presented as a function of spatial frequency for W/Rh anode/filter combination and different tube voltage.

Conclusions: New software was used successfully to analyze image quality parameters for the Siemens Mammomat Inspiration detector. This was done on the basis of an internationally accepted methodology. In the next step, mammographs with different detector types can be compared.