Reconstruction for proton computed tomography: a Monte Carlo study

Author

Li, T. ; Liang, Z. ; Mueller, K. ; Heimann, J. ; Johnson, L. ; Sadrozinski, H. ; Seiden, A. ; Williams, D. ; Zhang, L. ; Peggs, S. ; Satogata, T. ; Bashkirov, V. ; Schult, R.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys., Astron., Radiol., & Comput. Sci., State Univ. of New York, Stony Brook, NY, USA

Volume

4

fYear

2003

fDate

19-25 Oct. 2003

Firstpage

2767

Abstract

Advantages of proton computed tomography (pCT) have been recognized in the past. However, the quality of a pCT image may be limited due to the stochastic nature of the proton path inside the object. In this work, we report a preliminary study on reconstruction of pCT image with improved path estimation. A set of Monte Carlo simulations was carried out with the GEANT4 program, and reconstructed by filtered backprojection method. Simulations with different density contrast settings were compared, and spatial resolution around 0.5 mm for the highest contrast phantom was achieved, which is comparable to that of X-ray CT image. Further improvement by utilizing the statistical properties of proton transport is expected and is under progress.

Keywords

Monte Carlo methods; computerised tomography; image reconstruction; medical computing; medical image processing; phantoms; proton effects; GEANT4 program; Monte Carlo simulation; X-ray CT image; density contrast settings; filtered backprojection method; image quality; image reconstruction; path estimation; phantom; proton computed tomography; proton transport; spatial resolution; statistical properties; stochastic nature; Biomedical imaging; Computed tomography; Image reconstruction; Medical diagnostic imaging; Medical treatment; Monte Carlo methods; Protons; Solid scintillation detectors; Stochastic processes; X-ray imaging;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record, 2003 IEEE

ISSN

1082-3654

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8257-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/NSSMIC.2003.1352460

Filename

1352460