Translational Development of Photon-Counting CT Imaging

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The investigational Photon-Counting CT scanner has been installed in the Radiology and Imaging Sciences Department at NIH Clinical Center since 2015. Over the last 5 years, the research team conducted comparisons of the clinical quality of the Photon-counting vs conventional images and was not able to detect any difference between these techniques in standard clinical imaging applications such as abdominal pelvic contrast enhanced CT, low dose lung screening CT, computed tomographic angiography (CTA) of the abdomen and head and neck, and cerebral CT. In 2018 the research team changed in membership and redirected focus toward clinical task-based medical physics assessments of scanner performance in collaboration with Duke University Medical Physics Department. These task based assessments, include comparison of soft tissue measures of comparison typically in the abdomen, explorations of impact of lowering to very low radiation dose imaging, vascular imaging and evaluation of higher resolution capabilities applied to imaging of the lung and bone. An example of clinical imaging tasks is the optimize vascular imaging of coronary arteries. In this study the team collaborated with scientists from NHLBI to characterize the capabilities of photon counting to distinguish between high density iodinated contrast and adjacent calcium in coronary artery phantoms. The research team is currently focused on two areas: to determine the maximal resolution of the scanner/detector complex and to leverage multi-energy (spectral) imaging capabilities. These capabilities may be used to image innovative contrast agents such as Bismuth.