Performance of calcium quantifications on low-dose photon-counting detector CT with high-pitch: A phantom study

作者：Shanshui Zhou, Peng Liu, Haipeng Dong, Jiqiang Li, Zhihan Xu, Bernhard Schmidt, Shushen Lin, Wenjie Yang, Fuhua Yan, Le Qin · 发表于：Heliyon · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e32819 · 被引用次数：4 · 研究领域：Advanced X-ray and CT Imaging、Radiation Dose and Imaging、Medical Imaging Techniques and Applications

Purpose To evaluate the performance of calcium quantification on photon-counting detector CT (PCD-CT) with high-pitch at low radiation doses compared to third-generation dual-source energy-integrating detector CT (EID-CT). Materials and methods The phantom with three calcium inserts (50, 100, and 300 mg of calcium per milliliter), with and without the elliptical outer layer, was evaluated using high-pitch (3.2) and standard pitch (0.8) on PCD-CT, and standard pitch on EID-CT. Scans were performed with different tube voltages (PCD-CT: 120 and 140 kilo-voltage peak [kVp]; EID-CT: 70/Sn150 and 100/Sn150 kVp) and four radiation doses (1, 3, 5, and, 10 milli-Gray [mGy]). Utilizing the true calcium concentrations (CC true ) of the phantom as the gold standard references, regression equations for each kVp setting were formulated to convert CT attenuations (CaCT) into measured calcium concentrations (CC m ). The correlation analysis between CaCT and CC true was performed. The percentage absolute bias (PAB) was calculated from the differences between CC m and CC true and used to analyze the effects of scanning parameters on calcium quantification accuracy. Results A strong correlation was found between CaCT and CC true on PCD-CT (r > 0.99) and EID-CT (r > 0.98). For high- and standard-pitch scans on PCD-CT, the accuracy of calcium quantification is comparable ( p = 0.615): the median (interquartile range [IQR]) of PAB was 5.59% (2.79%–8.31%) and 4.87 % (2.62%–8.01%), respectively. The...