Computed tomography employing sensing of high energy particle current.

Abstract

Objective. We demonstrate High Energy Current Computed Tomography (HEC-CT) employing megavoltage linac x-rays.Approach. Using deterministic radiation transport we simulate two-parameter HEC-CT projections and using inverse Fourier transform we reconstruct two distinct material parameters for water phantoms with ICRP tissue inserts and materials of different atomic number Z. The HEC-CT projections are obtained by beam scanning and rotating the object.Main Results. The first HEC-CT material parameter is alike the standard attenuation coefficient with dependence on atomic number and material density similar to the Hounsfield Units. The second material parameter has opposite trends and does not find any analogy in the standard CT framework.Significance. New CT method has been invented for medical imaging or non-destructive testing. The key feature of the technique is a two-value CT reconstruction based on particle current instead of transmitted dose.