System and method of spectral calibration and basis material decomposition for X-ray CT systems

US8315352B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• General Electric Company · US

Inventors

• Xiaoye Wu · Rexford, US
• Dan Xu · Vernon Hills, US
• Naveen Chandra · Schenectady, US
• Zhanyu Ge · Fresno Street, US
• Jiang Hsieh · Brookfield, US
• Daniel David Harrison · Delanson, US
• Mary Sue Kulpins · New Berlin, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 16, 2010
• Grant date: Nov 20, 2012
• Expiry date: Sep 16, 2030

Classification

• Technology area (CPC A): Human Necessities
• CPC primary: A61B6/585
• WIPO field: Medical technology
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

An imaging system includes an x-ray source that emits a beam of x-rays toward an object, a detector that receives high frequency electromagnetic energy attenuated by the object, a data acquisition system (DAS) operably connected to the detector, and a computer operably connected to the DAS. The computer is programmed to compute detector coefficients based on a static low kVp measurement and a static high kVp measurement, capture incident spectra at high and low kVp during fast kVp switching, compute effective X-ray incident spectra at high and low kVp during fast kVp switching using the captured incident spectra, scan a water phantom and normalize the computed detector coefficients to water, adjust the computed effective X-ray incident spectra based on the normalized detector coefficients, compute basis material decomposition functions using the adjusted X-ray incident spectra, and generate one or more basis material density images using the computed basis material decomposition functions.