Deriving the mean excitation energy map from dual-energy and proton computed tomography

The mean excitation energy, I, is an essential quantity for proton treatment planning. This work investigated the feasibility of extracting the spatial distribution of I by combining two computed tomography (CT) modalities, dual-energy CT and proton CT, which provided the spatial distribution of the...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Gloria Vilches-Freixas, Catherine Therese Quiñones, Jean Michel Létang, Simon Rit
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2018-04-01
Series:Physics and Imaging in Radiation Oncology
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405631618300125
Description
Summary:The mean excitation energy, I, is an essential quantity for proton treatment planning. This work investigated the feasibility of extracting the spatial distribution of I by combining two computed tomography (CT) modalities, dual-energy CT and proton CT, which provided the spatial distribution of the relative electron density and the stopping power relative to water, respectively. We provided the analytical derivation of I as well as its uncertainty. Results were validated on simulated X-ray and proton CT images of a digital anthropomorphic phantom. Accuracy was below 15% with a large uncertainty, which demonstrated the potential and limits of the technique. Keywords: Proton CT, Dual-energy CT, Mean excitation energy
ISSN:2405-6316