Medical Physics Seminar – Monday, February 28, 2011
Photon counting Radiography and CT: current status and perspectives
Polad M. Shikhaliev, Ph.D. (guest of Dr. Guang-Hong Chen)
Assistant Professor and Director, Medical Imaging Laboratory, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA USA
Advantages of photon counting radiography and CT have been known for decades. However, its clinical applications have been hampered due to the lack of appropriate detector technologies, fast readout electronics, and powerful computers. Improvements on material science, chip level electronics, and computer technologies have brought the photon counting imaging to the level, where it meets requirements for some of the routine clinical applications.
We have been investigating photon counting detectors for radiography and CT since early 1990’s. In last several years we investigated photon counting spectral radiography and CT using Cadmium Zink Telluride (CZT) detectors, which are considered most promising technology.
We will share our recent experience and results on photon counting spectral radiography and CT, discuss the clinical imaging areas that would soon benefit from this technology, outline major challenges, and provide our vision on its future perspectives.