PURPOSE: To investigate the feasibility of an accurate measurement of water, lipid, and protein composition of breast tissue using a photon-counting spectral computed tomography (CT) with spectral distortion corrections. METHODS: Thirty-eight postmortem breasts were imaged with a cadmium-zinc-telluride-based photon-counting spectral CT system at 100 kV. The energy-resolving capability of the photon-counting detector was used to separate photons into low and high energy bins with a splitting energy of 42 keV. The estimated mean glandular dose for each breast ranged from 1.8 to 2.2 mGy. Two spectral distortion correction techniques were implemented, respectively, on the raw images to correct the nonlinear detector response due to pulse pileup and charge-sharing artifacts. Dual energy decomposition was then used to characterize each breast in terms of water, lipid, and protein content. In the meantime, the breasts were chemically decomposed into their respective water, lipid, and protein components to provide a gold standard for comparison with dual energy decomposition results. RESULTS: The accuracy of the tissue compositional measurement with spectral CT was determined by comparing to the reference standard from chemical analysis. The averaged root-mean-square error in percentage composition was reduced from 15.5% to 2.8% after spectral distortion corrections. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that spectral CT can be used to quantify the water, lipid, and protein content in breast tissue. The accuracy of the compositional analysis depends on the applied spectral distortion correction technique.
PURPOSE: To investigate the feasibility of an accurate measurement of water, lipid, and protein composition of breast tissue using a photon-counting spectral computed tomography (CT) with spectral distortion corrections. METHODS: Thirty-eight postmortem breasts were imaged with a cadmium-zinc-telluride-based photon-counting spectral CT system at 100 kV. The energy-resolving capability of the photon-counting detector was used to separate photons into low and high energy bins with a splitting energy of 42 keV. The estimated mean glandular dose for each breast ranged from 1.8 to 2.2 mGy. Two spectral distortion correction techniques were implemented, respectively, on the raw images to correct the nonlinear detector response due to pulse pileup and charge-sharing artifacts. Dual energy decomposition was then used to characterize each breast in terms of water, lipid, and protein content. In the meantime, the breasts were chemically decomposed into their respective water, lipid, and protein components to provide a gold standard for comparison with dual energy decomposition results. RESULTS: The accuracy of the tissue compositional measurement with spectral CT was determined by comparing to the reference standard from chemical analysis. The averaged root-mean-square error in percentage composition was reduced from 15.5% to 2.8% after spectral distortion corrections. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that spectral CT can be used to quantify the water, lipid, and protein content in breast tissue. The accuracy of the compositional analysis depends on the applied spectral distortion correction technique.
Authors: Abigail S Haka; Karen E Shafer-Peltier; Maryann Fitzmaurice; Joseph Crowe; Ramachandra R Dasari; Michael S Feld Journal: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Date: 2005-08-22 Impact factor: 11.205
Authors: U Bottigli; B Golosio; G L Masala; P Oliva; S Stumbo; P Delogu; M E Fantacci; L Abbene; F Fauci; G Raso Journal: Med Phys Date: 2006-09 Impact factor: 4.071
Authors: Bruce J Tromberg; Albert Cerussi; Natasha Shah; Montana Compton; Amanda Durkin; David Hsiang; John Butler; Rita Mehta Journal: Breast Cancer Res Date: 2005-11-28 Impact factor: 6.466