Abstract
In a recent journal article [IEEE Trans. Nuc. Sci., 63(1), 341-350, 2016], we introduced a novel method that decomposes dual-energy X-ray CT (DECT) data into electron density (ρe) and a new effective-atomic-number called Ze in pursuit of system-independent characterization of materials. The Ze of a material, unlike the traditional Zeff, is defined relative to the actual X-ray absorption properties of the constituent atoms in the material, which are based on published X-ray cross sections. Our DECT method, called SIRZ (System-Independent ρe, Ze), uses a set of well-known reference materials and an understanding of the system spectral response to produce accurate and precise estimates of the X-ray-relevant basis variables (ρe, Ze) regardless of scanner or spectra in diagnostic energy ranges (30 to 200 keV). Potentially, SIRZ can account for and correct spectral changes in a scanner over time and, because the system spectral response is included in the technique, additional beam-hardening correction is not needed. Results show accuracy (<3%) and precision (<2%) values that are much better than prior methods on a wide range of spectra. In this paper, we will describe how to convert DECT system output into (ρe, Ze) features and we present our latest SIRZ results compared with ground truth for a set of materials.
