Integration of single-shot quantitative x-ray imaging on a C-arm system for static and dynamic phantom studies

Abstract

Previously we developed a single-shot quantitative x-ray imaging (SSQI) method to perform material decomposition in x-ray imaging by combining the use of a primary modulator (PM) and dual-layer (DL) detector, where the PM removes scatter from DL images while the DL provides dual energy (DE) images for material decomposition (MD), which further removes beam hardening resulting from the partially attenuated regions of the PM. We have demonstrated the concept of SSQI using simulation and further tested its efficacy on chest phantom studies performed on our tabletop system. In this work, we further explored the clinical value of SSQI in interventional guidance, specifically focusing on investigating its potential in real-time x-ray image guidance. We integrated the SSQI on a C-arm system and designed two studies to evaluate its performance for iodine quantification in both static and dynamic imaging using anthropomorphic phantoms. Compared to direct MD without scatter correction, the RMSE in material-specific images was reduced by 38-64% with SSQI when compared to ground truth. For the dynamic study, the SSQI estimated iodine mass was in close agreement with the amount from a ground truth acquisition. The results in this work further expand the potential of SSQI for real-time image guidance.