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

Gloria Vilches-Freixas (1) , Catherine Thérèse Quinones (1) , Jean Michel Létang (1) , Simon Rit (1)

1 Imagerie Tomographique et Radiothérapie

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.

Mots clés: Proton CT; Dual-energy CT; Mean excitation energy

Domaines: Traitement du signal et de l'image [eess.SP]; Physique Médicale [physics.med-ph]

Gloria Vilches-Freixas, Catherine Thérèse Quinones, Jean Michel Létang, Simon Rit. Deriving the mean excitation energy map from dual-energy and proton computed tomography. Physics and Imaging in Radiation Oncology, 2018, 6, pp.20 - 24. ⟨10.1016/j.phro.2018.04.001⟩. ⟨hal-01909720⟩