Contrast-Enhanced Dual-Energy Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (CE-DE-DBT) Imaging: Iodine Concentration Estimation
Presentations
PO-GePV-I-3 (Sunday, 7/25/2021) [Eastern Time (GMT-4)]
Purpose: To demonstrate the feasibility of estimation of iodine-contrast concentration in contrast-enhanced dual-energy digital breast tomosynthesis (CE-DE-DBT) through accurate image reconstruction within transverse planes
Methods: A digital breast phantom within a transverse plane was considered, that includes three iodine-contrast-enhanced ROIs. A typical DBT scanning configuration was employed for the transverse plane, with source-to-rotation and source-to-detector distances as 36 cm and 72 cm, and a detector of 37.5 cm consisting of 512 bins. Dual-energy data were generated over two overlapping scanning arcs with 80- and 140-kVp spectra, using a non-linear-data model incorporating the polychromatic X-ray spectrum. Three different angular ranges, 14°, 20°, and 30°, were investigated with an angular interval of 1° per view. 80- and 140-kVp images were reconstructed by a new directional total variation (DTV) algorithm and were decomposed into basis images of breast tissue and iodine contrast. From basis images, monochromatic images at 34 keV were composed and assessed for artifacts reduction, and iodine-contrast concentrations were estimated.
Results: The study reveals that, for the three limited-angular ranges, the DTV algorithm yields monochromatic images with minimized leaking artifacts that are otherwise observed in images obtained with existing algorithms. Furthermore, the iodine-contrast concentrations were accurately estimated, as compared to the results obtained with the full-scan data of 360° by using existing algorithms. Additional detailed results will be presented at the conference.
Conclusion: It has been demonstrated in this work that monochromatic images with reduced artifacts can be obtained within transverse planes in DBT by use of the new DTV algorithm, which can lead to accurate estimation of iodine-contrast concentration in CE-DE-DBT. Future study will investigate the impact of additional physical factors, such as scatter.
Keywords
Not Applicable / None Entered.
Taxonomy
IM- Breast X-Ray Imaging: Dual-energy and spectral
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