Energy Sensitive Digital Radiography

描述(申请人提供)：这一数字放射成像项目的长期目标是减少患者剂量，并产生与现有技术相比，肿瘤和其他病变的清晰度提高的图像。目前，我们还没有已知的方式来利用典型的X射线装置发出的广泛的韧致辐射光谱，以及它在组织分化和对比度增强方面的潜力。一种商用GE设备通过对患者进行双重曝光来创建双能光子集，每次曝光在不同的KVP下完成。离子光学公司将开发一种现代辐射探测器来记录每个光子的能量。然后，所需的分离成两个或更多个由能量标记的数据集，可以通过软件来完成。在类似于开窗的过程中，该算法将根据每个患者的特征进行调整。这种方法只需要一次曝光，将运动伪影减少到最低限度，并可能减少患者的暴露。为核物理中的快速辐射探测器开发了从多个并行通道获取数据所需的仪器。该项目的第一阶段将集中于证明高压气体微图案探测器的有效性。众所周知，这种探测器具有良好的对象和能量分辨率，具有良好的线性度和信噪比。由于有一个厚重的气体吸收体而带来的视差问题在很大程度上得到了解决。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term goals of this digital radiography project is the reduction of patient dose and production of images that demonstrate increased perspicuity for neoplasms and other lesions in comparison with available techniques. Currently, there are no modalities known to us that take advantage of the broad bremmstrahlung spectrum emitted by the typical x-ray unit and it's potential for tissue differentiation and contrast enhancement. A commercially available GE unit creates dual-energy photon sets by double exposing the patient, each exposure accomplished at a different kVp. Ion Optics will develop a modern radiation detector to record the energy of each photon. The required segregation into two or more data sets, labeled by energy, can then be accomplished by software. This algorithm would be adjustable, as per the characteristics of each patient, in a process akin to windowing. This approach requires only a single exposure, reducing motion artifacts to a minimum and is likely to lead to reduced patient exposure. Required instrumentation for acquiring data from many parallel channels has been developed for fast radiation detectors in nuclear physics. Phase I of this project will concentrate on proving the efficacy of high-pressure gas micro-pattern detectors. Such detectors are known to have good object and energy resolution with excellent linearity and SNR. The problem of parallax presented by having a thick gas absorber has been largely solved.