Effective atomic number image determination with an energy-resolving photon-counting detector using polychromatic X-ray attenuation by correcting for the beam hardening effect and detector response

Natsumi Kimoto; Hiroaki Hayashi; Takumi Asakawa; Cheonghae Lee; Takashi Asahara; Tatsuya Maeda; Sota Goto; Yuki Kanazawa; Akitoshi Katsumata; Shuichiro Yamamoto; Masahiro Okada

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2021.109617

Effective atomic number image determination with an energy-resolving photon-counting detector using polychromatic X-ray attenuation by correcting for the beam hardening effect and detector response

Appl Radiat Isot. 2021 Apr:170:109617. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2021.109617. Epub 2021 Feb 2.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kanazawa University, Ishikawa, 920-0942, Japan. Electronic address: natsumi.kimoto.0717@gmail.com.
² Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kanazawa University, Ishikawa, 920-0942, Japan. Electronic address: hayashi.hiroaki@staff.kanazawa-u.ac.jp.
³ Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kanazawa University, Ishikawa, 920-0942, Japan. Electronic address: takumiasakawa.24@gmail.com.
⁴ Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kanazawa University, Ishikawa, 920-0942, Japan. Electronic address: lee.cheonghae.1999@gmail.com.
⁵ Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kanazawa University, Ishikawa, 920-0942, Japan; Division of Radiology, Medical Support Department, Okayama University Hospital, Okayama, 700-8558, Japan. Electronic address: takashi.asahara.111@gmail.com.
⁶ Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kanazawa University, Ishikawa, 920-0942, Japan. Electronic address: tatsuya.maeda.1108@gmail.com.
⁷ Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kanazawa University, Ishikawa, 920-0942, Japan; National Metrology Institute of Japan, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Ibaraki, 305-8568, Japan. Electronic address: gotosota.19960221@gmail.com.
⁸ Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Tokushima University, Tokushima, 770-8503, Japan. Electronic address: yk@tokushima-u.ac.jp.
⁹ Department of Oral Radiology, Asahi University, Gifu, 501-0223, Japan. Electronic address: kawamata@dent.asahi-u.ac.jp.
¹⁰ JOB CORPORATION, Kanagawa, 222-0033, Japan. Electronic address: s.yamamoto@job-image.com.
¹¹ JOB CORPORATION, Kanagawa, 222-0033, Japan. Electronic address: maple@mth.biglobe.ne.jp.

PMID: 33592487
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2021.109617

Abstract

In this study, we propose an effective atomic number (Z_eff) determination method based on a photon-counting technique. The proposed method can correct for the beam hardening effect and detector response based on polychromatic X-rays to allow high accuracy material identification. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our method, the procedure was applied to X-ray images acquired by a prototype energy-resolving photon-counting detector and we obtained an Z_eff image with accuracy of Z_eff ± 0.5 regardless of the mass thickness.

Keywords: Beam hardening effect; Detector response; Effective atomic number; Photon-counting.