Methods and apparatus for estimating a material composition of an imaged object
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsJohn Patrick Kaufhold, Jeffrey Wayne Eberhard, Dinko E. Gonzalez Trotter, Bernhard Erich Hermann Claus, John Eric Tkaczyk
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for estimating a material composition of an imaged object using an imaging system. The imaging system includes a radiation source and a digital detector. The method also includes scanning a plurality of calibration phantoms with varying material composition to acquire a plurality of reference calibration images, estimating an attenuation coefficient thickness product for each pixel in the reference calibration images, and estimating a material composition of a region of interest using the estimated pixelwise coefficient thickness product.
Claims30
A method for estimating a material composition of an imaged object using an imaging system, the imaging system including a radiation source and a digital detector, said method comprising:
- scanning a plurality of calibration phantoms with varying material composition to acquire a plurality of reference calibration images;
- estimating an attenuation coefficient thickness product for each pixel in the reference calibration images;
- and
- estimating a material composition of a region of interest using the estimated pixelwise coefficient thickness product.
A method for estimating a material composition of an imaged object using an imaging system, the imaging system including a radiation source and a digital detector, said method comprising:
- scanning a plurality of calibration phantoms comprising a plurality of breast-equivalent materials to acquire a plurality of reference calibration images;
- estimating an attenuation coefficient thickness product for each pixel in the reference calibration images comprises transforming a plurality of photon counts to a measure that is linear in the attenuation coefficient in accordance with yphantom(i, j)=−log(Iphantom(i, j)) and wherein estimating an attenuation coefficient further comprises adjusting the reference calibration images to remove the effects of scatter, electronic drift in the detector, geometric effects, and non-uniform detector counting characteristics generate a plurality of scatter-corrected and gain corrected images;
- and
- estimating a material composition of a region of interest using the estimated coefficient thickness product.
A medical imaging system for estimating a material composition of an imaged object, said medical imaging system comprising:
- a detector array;
- at least one radiation source;
- and
- a computer coupled to said detector array and radiation source and configured to:
- scan a plurality of calibration phantoms comprising varying material composition to acquire a plurality of reference calibration images;
- estimate an attenuation coefficient thickness product for each pixel in the reference calibration images;
- and
- estimate a material composition of a region of interest using the estimated coefficient thickness product.
A medical imaging system for estimating a material composition of an imaged object, said medical imaging system comprising:
- a detector array;
- at least one radiation source;
- and
- a computer coupled to said detector array and radiation source and configured to:
- scan a plurality of calibration phantoms comprising a plurality of breast-equivalent materials to acquire a plurality of reference calibration images;
- estimate an attenuation coefficient thickness product for each pixel in the reference calibration images, wherein to estimate an attenuation coefficient thickness product further comprises transforming a plurality of photon counts to a measure that is linear in the attenuation coefficient in accordance with yphantom (i, j)=−log(Iphantom(i, j)) and adjusting the reference calibration images to remove the effects of scatter, electronic drift in the detector, geometric effects, and non-uniform detector counting characteristics generate a plurality of scatter-corrected and gain corrected images;
- and
- estimate a material composition of a region of interest using the estimated coefficient thickness product.
A computer readable medium encoded with a program executable by a computer for reconstructing a three-dimensional dataset representative of an imaged object, said program configured to instruct the computer to:
- scan a plurality of calibration phantoms comprising varying material composition to acquire a plurality of reference calibration images;
- estimate an attenuation coefficient thickness product for each pixel in the reference calibration images;
- and
- estimate a material composition of a region of interest using the estimated coefficient thickness product.
A computer readable medium encoded with a program executable by a computer for reconstructing a three-dimensional dataset representative of an imaged object, said program configured to instruct the computer to:
- scan a plurality of calibration phantoms comprising a plurality of breast-equivalent materials to acquire a plurality of reference calibration images;
- estimate an attenuation coefficient thickness product for each pixel in the reference calibration images, wherein to estimate an attenuation coefficient thickness product further comprises transforming a plurality of photon counts to a measure that is linear in the attenuation coefficient in accordance with yphamtom(i, j)=−log(Iphamtom(i, j)) and adjusting the reference calibration images to remove the effects of scatter, electronic drift in the detector, geometric effects, and non-uniform detector counting characteristics generate a plurality of scatter-corrected and gain corrected images;
- and
- estimate a material composition of a region of interest using the estimated coefficient thickness product.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.