Methods and apparatus for estimating a material composition of an imaged object
First Claim
1. A method for estimating a material composition of an imaged object using an imaging system, the imaging system including a radiation source and a digital detector, said method comprising:
- scanning a plurality of calibration phantoms with varying material composition to acquire a plurality of reference calibration images;
estimating an attenuation coefficient thickness product for each pixel in the reference calibration images; and
estimating a material composition of a region of interest using the estimated pixelwise coefficient thickness product.
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Abstract
A method for estimating a material composition of an imaged object using an imaging system. The imaging system includes a radiation source and a digital detector. The method also includes scanning a plurality of calibration phantoms with varying material composition to acquire a plurality of reference calibration images, estimating an attenuation coefficient thickness product for each pixel in the reference calibration images, and estimating a material composition of a region of interest using the estimated pixelwise coefficient thickness product.
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Citations
30 Claims
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1. A method for estimating a material composition of an imaged object using an imaging system, the imaging system including a radiation source and a digital detector, said method comprising:
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scanning a plurality of calibration phantoms with varying material composition to acquire a plurality of reference calibration images;
estimating an attenuation coefficient thickness product for each pixel in the reference calibration images; and
estimating a material composition of a region of interest using the estimated pixelwise coefficient thickness product. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method for estimating a material composition of an imaged object using an imaging system, the imaging system including a radiation source and a digital detector, said method comprising:
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scanning a plurality of calibration phantoms comprising a plurality of breast-equivalent materials to acquire a plurality of reference calibration images;
estimating an attenuation coefficient thickness product for each pixel in the reference calibration images comprises transforming a plurality of photon counts to a measure that is linear in the attenuation coefficient in accordance with yphantom(i, j)=−
log(Iphantom(i, j)) and wherein estimating an attenuation coefficient further comprises adjusting the reference calibration images to remove the effects of scatter, electronic drift in the detector, geometric effects, and non-uniform detector counting characteristics generate a plurality of scatter-corrected and gain corrected images; and
estimating a material composition of a region of interest using the estimated coefficient thickness product.
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11. A medical imaging system for estimating a material composition of an imaged object, said medical imaging system comprising:
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a detector array;
at least one radiation source; and
a computer coupled to said detector array and radiation source and configured to;
scan a plurality of calibration phantoms comprising varying material composition to acquire a plurality of reference calibration images;
estimate an attenuation coefficient thickness product for each pixel in the reference calibration images; and
estimate a material composition of a region of interest using the estimated coefficient thickness product. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A medical imaging system for estimating a material composition of an imaged object, said medical imaging system comprising:
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a detector array;
at least one radiation source; and
a computer coupled to said detector array and radiation source and configured to;
scan a plurality of calibration phantoms comprising a plurality of breast-equivalent materials to acquire a plurality of reference calibration images;
estimate an attenuation coefficient thickness product for each pixel in the reference calibration images, wherein to estimate an attenuation coefficient thickness product further comprises transforming a plurality of photon counts to a measure that is linear in the attenuation coefficient in accordance with yphantom (i, j)=−
log(Iphantom(i, j)) and adjusting the reference calibration images to remove the effects of scatter, electronic drift in the detector, geometric effects, and non-uniform detector counting characteristics generate a plurality of scatter-corrected and gain corrected images; and
estimate a material composition of a region of interest using the estimated coefficient thickness product.
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21. A computer readable medium encoded with a program executable by a computer for reconstructing a three-dimensional dataset representative of an imaged object, said program configured to instruct the computer to:
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scan a plurality of calibration phantoms comprising varying material composition to acquire a plurality of reference calibration images;
estimate an attenuation coefficient thickness product for each pixel in the reference calibration images; and
estimate a material composition of a region of interest using the estimated coefficient thickness product. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A computer readable medium encoded with a program executable by a computer for reconstructing a three-dimensional dataset representative of an imaged object, said program configured to instruct the computer to:
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scan a plurality of calibration phantoms comprising a plurality of breast-equivalent materials to acquire a plurality of reference calibration images;
estimate an attenuation coefficient thickness product for each pixel in the reference calibration images, wherein to estimate an attenuation coefficient thickness product further comprises transforming a plurality of photon counts to a measure that is linear in the attenuation coefficient in accordance with yphamtom(i, j)=−
log(Iphamtom(i, j)) and adjusting the reference calibration images to remove the effects of scatter, electronic drift in the detector, geometric effects, and non-uniform detector counting characteristics generate a plurality of scatter-corrected and gain corrected images; and
estimate a material composition of a region of interest using the estimated coefficient thickness product.
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Specification