KEYWORDS: X-rays, Collimation, Monte Carlo methods, 3D image processing, X-ray imaging, Sensors, Detection and tracking algorithms, Fluoroscopy, X-ray detectors, Imaging systems
Scanning-beam digital x-ray (SBDX) is an inverse geometry x-ray fluoroscopy system capable of tomosynthesis-based 3-D catheter tracking. This work proposes a method of dose-reduced 3-D catheter tracking using dynamic electronic collimation (DEC) of the SBDX scanning x-ray tube. This is achieved through the selective deactivation of focal spot positions not needed for the catheter tracking task. The technique was retrospectively evaluated with SBDX detector data recorded during a phantom study. DEC imaging of a catheter tip at isocenter required 340 active focal spots per frame versus 4473 spots in full field-of-view (FOV) mode. The dose-area product (DAP) and peak skin dose (PSD) for DEC versus full FOV scanning were calculated using an SBDX Monte Carlo simulation code. The average DAP was reduced to 7.8% of the full FOV value, consistent with the relative number of active focal spots (7.6%). For image sequences with a moving catheter, PSD was 33.6% to 34.8% of the full FOV value. The root-mean-squared-deviation between DEC-based 3-D tracking coordinates and full FOV 3-D tracking coordinates was less than 0.1 mm. The 3-D distance between the tracked tip and the sheath centerline averaged 0.75 mm. DEC is a feasible method for dose reduction during SBDX 3-D catheter tracking.
Accurate and artifact-free reconstruction of tomographic images requires precise knowledge of the imaging system geometry. A projection matrix-based calibration method to enable C-arm inverse geometry CT (IGCT) is proposed. The method is evaluated for scanning-beam digital x-ray (SBDX), a C-arm mounted inverse geometry fluoroscopic technology. A helical configuration of fiducials is imaged at each gantry angle in a rotational acquisition. For each gantry angle, digital tomosynthesis is performed at multiple planes and a composite image analogous to a cone-beam projection is generated from the plane stack. The geometry of the C-arm, source array, and detector array is determined at each angle by constructing a parameterized three-dimensional-to-two-dimensional projection matrix that minimizes the sum-of-squared deviations between measured and projected fiducial coordinates. Simulations were used to evaluate calibration performance with translations and rotations of the source and detector. The relative root-mean-square error in a reconstruction of a numerical thorax phantom was 0.4% using the calibration method versus 7.7% without calibration. In phantom studies, reconstruction of SBDX projections using the proposed method eliminated artifacts present in noncalibrated reconstructions. The proposed IGCT calibration method reduces image artifacts when uncertainties exist in system geometry.
Scanning-beam digital x-ray (SBDX) is an inverse geometry x-ray fluoroscopy system capable of tomosynthesis-based 3D tracking of catheter electrodes concurrent with fluoroscopic display. To facilitate respiratory motion-compensated 3D catheter tracking, an automated coronary sinus (CS) catheter detection algorithm for SBDX was developed. The technique uses the 3D localization capability of SBDX and prior knowledge of the catheter shape. Candidate groups of points representing the CS catheter are obtained from a 3D shape-constrained search. A cost function is then minimized over the groups to select the most probable CS catheter candidate. The algorithm was implemented in MATLAB and tested offline using recorded image sequences of a chest phantom containing a CS catheter, ablation catheter, and fiducial clutter. Fiducial placement was varied to create challenging detection scenarios. Table panning and elevation was used to simulate motion. The CS catheter detection method had 98.1% true positive rate and 100% true negative rate in 2755 frames of imaging. Average processing time was 12.7 ms/frame on a PC with a 3.4 GHz CPU and 8 GB memory. Motion compensation based on 3D CS catheter tracking was demonstrated in a moving chest phantom with a fixed CS catheter and an ablation catheter pulled along a fixed trajectory. The RMS error in the tracked ablation catheter trajectory was 1.41 mm, versus 10.35 mm without motion compensation. A computationally efficient method of automated 3D CS catheter detection has been developed to assist with motion-compensated 3D catheter tracking and registration of 3D cardiac models to tracked catheters.
The scanning-beam digital x-ray (SBDX) system is an inverse geometry x-ray fluoroscopy technology that performs real-time tomosynthesis at planes perpendicular to the source-detector axis. The live display is a composite image which portrays sharp features (e.g. coronary arteries) extracted from a 16 cm thick reconstruction volume. We present a method for automatically determining the position of the cardiac volume prior to acquisition of a coronary angiogram. In the algorithm, a single non-contrast frame is reconstructed over a 44 cm thickness using shift-and-add digital tomosynthesis. Gradient filtering is applied to each plane to emphasize features such as the cardiomediastinal contour, diaphragm, and lung texture, and then sharpness vs. plane position curves are generated. Three sharpness metrics were investigated: average gradient in the bright field, maximum gradient, and the number of normalized gradients exceeding
0.5. A model correlating the peak sharpness in a non-contrast frame and the midplane of the coronary arteries in a contrast-enhanced frame was established using 37 SBDX angiographic loops (64-136 kg human subjects, 0-30° cranial- caudal). The average gradient in the bright field (primarily lung) and the number of normalized gradients >0.5 each yielded peaks correlated to the coronary midplane. The rms deviation between the predicted and true midplane was 1.57 cm. For a 16 cm reconstruction volume and the 5.5-11.5 cm thick cardiac volumes in this study, midplane estimation errors of 2.25-5.25 cm were tolerable. Tomosynthesis-based localization of cardiac volume is feasible. This technique could be applied prior to coronary angiography, or to assist in isocentering the patient for rotational angiography.
Scanning-beam digital x-ray (SBDX) is an inverse geometry x-ray fluoroscopy system capable of tomosynthesis-based
3D catheter tracking. This work proposes a method of dose-reduced 3D tracking using dynamic electronic collimation
(DEC) of the SBDX scanning x-ray tube. Positions in the 2D focal spot array are selectively activated to create a regionof-
interest (ROI) x-ray field around the tracked catheter. The ROI position is updated for each frame based on a motion
vector calculated from the two most recent 3D tracking results. The technique was evaluated with SBDX data acquired
as a catheter tip inside a chest phantom was pulled along a 3D trajectory. DEC scans were retrospectively generated
from the detector images stored for each focal spot position. DEC imaging of a catheter tip in a volume measuring 11.4
cm across at isocenter required 340 active focal spots per frame, versus 4473 spots in full-FOV mode. The dose-area-product
(DAP) and peak skin dose (PSD) for DEC versus full field-of-view (FOV) scanning were calculated using an
SBDX Monte Carlo simulation code. DAP was reduced to 7.4% to 8.4% of the full-FOV value, consistent with the
relative number of active focal spots (7.6%). For image sequences with a moving catheter, PSD was 33.6% to 34.8% of
the full-FOV value. The root-mean-squared-deviation between DEC-based 3D tracking coordinates and full-FOV 3D
tracking coordinates was less than 0.1 mm. The 3D distance between the tracked tip and the sheath centerline averaged
0.75 mm. Dynamic electronic collimation can reduce dose with minimal change in tracking performance.
Accurate and artifact free reconstruction of tomographic images requires precise knowledge of the imaging system
geometry. This work proposes a novel projection matrix (P-matrix) based calibration method to enable C-arm inverse
geometry CT (IGCT). The method is evaluated for scanning-beam digital x-ray (SBDX), a C-arm mounted inverse
geometry fluoroscopic technology. A helical configuration of fiducials is imaged at each gantry angle in a rotational
acquisition. For each gantry angle, digital tomosynthesis is performed at multiple planes and a composite image analogous
to a cone-beam projection is generated from the plane stack. The geometry of the C-arm, source array, and detector array
is determined at each angle by constructing a parameterized 3D-to-2D projection matrix that minimizes the sum-of-squared
deviations between measured and projected fiducial coordinates. Simulations were used to evaluate calibration
performance with translations and rotations of the source and detector. In a geometry with 1 mm translation of the central
ray relative to the axis-of-rotation and 1 degree yaw of the detector and source arrays, the maximum error in the recovered
translational parameters was 0.4 mm and maximum error in the rotation parameter was 0.02 degrees. The relative rootmean-
square error in a reconstruction of a numerical thorax phantom was 0.4% using the calibration method, versus 7.7%
without calibration. Changes in source-detector-distance were the most challenging to estimate. Reconstruction of
experimental SBDX data using the proposed method eliminated double contour artifacts present in a non-calibrated
reconstruction. The proposed IGCT geometric calibration method reduces image artifacts when uncertainties exist in
system geometry.
This study investigates the feasibility of obtaining CT-derived 3D surfaces from data provided by the scanning-beam digital x-ray (SBDX) system. Simulated SBDX short-scan acquisitions of a Shepp-Logan and a thorax phantom containing a high contrast spherical volume were generated. 3D reconstructions were performed using a penalized weighted least squares method with total variation regularization (PWLS-TV), as well as a more efficient variant employing gridding of projection data to parallel rays (gPWLS-TV). Voxel noise, edge blurring, and surface accuracy were compared to gridded filtered back projection (gFBP). PWLS reconstruction of a noise-free reduced-size Shepp-Logan phantom had 1.4% rRMSE. In noisy gPWLS-TV reconstructions of a reduced-size thorax phantom, 99% of points on the segmented sphere perimeter were within 0.33, 0.47, and 0.70 mm of the ground truth, respectively, for fluences comparable to imaging through 18.0, 27.2, and 34.6 cm acrylic. Surface accuracies of gFBP and gPWLS-TV were similar at high fluences, while gPWLS-TV offered improvement at the lowest fluence. The gPWLS-TV voxel noise was reduced by 60% relative to gFBP, on average. High-contrast linespread functions measured 1.25 mm and 0.96 mm (FWHM) for gPWLS-TV and gFBP. In a simulation of gated and truncated projection data from a full-sized thorax, gPWLS-TV reconstruction yielded segmented surface points which were within 1.41 mm of ground truth. Results support the feasibility of 3D surface segmentation with SBDX. Further investigation of artifacts caused by data truncation and patient motion is warranted.
Scanning-beam digital x-ray (SBDX) is an inverse geometry fluoroscopy system for low dose cardiac imaging. The use of a narrow scanned x-ray beam in SBDX reduces detected x-ray scatter and improves dose efficiency, however the tight beam collimation also limits the maximum achievable x-ray fluence. To increase the fluence available for imaging, we have constructed a new SBDX prototype with a wider x-ray beam, larger-area detector, and new real-time image reconstructor. Imaging is performed with a scanning source that generates 40,328 narrow overlapping projections from 71 x 71 focal spot positions for every 1/15 s scan period. A high speed 2-mm thick CdTe photon counting detector was constructed with 320x160 elements and 10.6 cm x 5.3 cm area (full readout every 1.28 s), providing an 86% increase in area over the previous SBDX prototype. A matching multihole collimator was fabricated from layers of tungsten, brass, and lead, and a multi-GPU reconstructor was assembled to reconstruct the stream of captured detector images into full field-of-view images in real time. Thirty-two tomosynthetic planes spaced by 5 mm plus a multiplane composite image are produced for each scan frame. Noise equivalent quanta on the new SBDX prototype measured 63%-71% higher than the previous prototype. X-ray scatter fraction was 3.9-7.8% when imaging 23.3-32.6 cm acrylic phantoms, versus 2.3- 4.2% with the previous prototype. Coronary angiographic imaging at 15 frame/s was successfully performed on the new SBDX prototype, with live display of either a multiplane composite or single plane image.
Scanning-Beam Digital X-ray (SBDX) is a technology for low-dose fluoroscopy that employs inverse geometry x-ray beam scanning. To assist with rapid modeling of inverse geometry x-ray systems, we have developed a Monte Carlo (MC) simulation tool based on the MC-GPU framework. MC-GPU version 1.3 was modified to implement a 2D array of focal spot positions on a plane, with individually adjustable x-ray outputs, each producing a narrow x-ray beam directed toward a stationary photon-counting detector array. Geometric accuracy and blurring behavior in tomosynthesis reconstructions were evaluated from simulated images of a 3D arrangement of spheres. The artifact spread function from simulation agreed with experiment to within 1.6% (rRMSD). Detected x-ray scatter fraction was simulated for two SBDX detector geometries and compared to experiments. For the current SBDX prototype (10.6 cm wide by 5.3 cm tall detector), x-ray scatter fraction measured 2.8-6.4% (18.6-31.5 cm acrylic, 100 kV), versus 2.2-5.0% in MC simulation. Experimental trends in scatter versus detector size and phantom thickness were observed in simulation. For dose evaluation, an anthropomorphic phantom was imaged using regular and regional adaptive exposure (RAE) scanning. The reduction in kerma-area-product resulting from RAE scanning was 45% in radiochromic film measurements, versus 46% in simulation. The integral kerma calculated from TLD measurement points within the phantom was 57% lower when using RAE, versus 61% lower in simulation. This MC tool may be used to estimate tomographic blur, detected scatter, and dose distributions when developing inverse geometry x-ray systems.
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