Absolute measurement of the effective atomic number and the electron density by using dual-energy CT images

Abstract

Material decomposition using dual-energy and material-selective techniques was performed using computed-tomography (CT)-generated reconstructed images. Previous work using the dual-energy method focused on extracting the effective atomic number and the electron density of materials to confirm the dosimetric accuracy in radiation therapy. Dual-energy methods mostly depend on the device generating the X-rays, such as a synchrotron, and on dose verification for radiation treatment planning. Information obtained from CT imaging is important both in diagnosis and in planning radiation therapy. In a clinical setting, CT images are usually displayed as Houndsfield units (HU), which are extracted from the attenuation coefficient of a material. The attenuation coefficient is calculated using the effective atomic number and the electron density of a material; thus, information expressed in HU can be converted into the effective atomic number and the electron density by using the dual-energy equation. This study was performed using realistic Xray spectra to differentiate between the contrast media and plaque in vascular images. Our results suggest that the effective atomic number and electron density are useful in distinguishing between two adjacent materials with similar HUs.