Quantitative imaging of electron density and effective atomic number using phase contrast CT.

Compared to single energy CT, which only provides information for x-ray linear attenuation coefficients, dual-energy CT is able to obtain both the electron density and effective atomic number for different materials in a quantitative way. In this study, as an alternative to dual-energy CT, a novel quantitative imaging method based on phase contrast CT is presented. Rather than requiring two projection data sets with different x-ray energy spectra, diffraction-grating-based phase contrast CT is capable of reconstructing images of both linear attenuation and refractive index decrement from the same projection data using a single x-ray energy spectra. From the two images, quantitative information of both the electron density and effective atomic number can be extracted. Two physical phantoms were constructed and used to validate the presented method. Experimental results demonstrate that (1) electron density can be accurately determined from refractive index decrement through a linear relationship, and (2) the effective atomic number can be explicitly derived from the ratio of the linear attenuation to refractive index decrement using a power function plus a constant. The presented method will provide insight into the technique of material separation and find its use in medical and industrial applications.