On filtration for high-energy phase-contrast x-ray imaging

Abstract

Phase-sensitive x-ray imaging promises unprecedented soft-tissue contrast and resolution. However, several practical challenges have to be overcome when using the setup in a clinical environment. The system design that is currently closest to clinical use is the grating-based Talbot-Lau interferometer (GBI).^1-3 The requirements for patient imaging are low patient dose, fast imaging time, and high image quality. For GBI, these requirements can be met most successfully with a narrow energy width, high- ux spectrum. Additionally, to penetrate a human-sized object, the design energy of the system has to be well above 40 keV. To our knowledge, little research has been done so far to investigate optimal GBI filtration at such high x-ray energies. In this paper, we study different filtration strategies and their impact on high-energy GBI. Specifically, we compare copper filtration at low peak voltage with equal-absorption, equal-imaging time K-edge filtration of spectra with higher peak voltage under clinically realistic boundary conditions. We specifically focus on a design energy of 59 keV and investigate combinations of tube current, peak voltage, and filtration that lead to equal patient absorption. Theoretical considerations suggest that the K edge of tantalum might provide a transmission pocket at around 59 keV, yielding a well-shaped spectrum. Although one can observe a slight visibility benefit when using tungsten or tantalum filtration, experimental results indicate that visibility benefits most from a low x-ray tube peak voltage.