TY - JOUR
T1 - Evaluation of fan-beam kilovoltage computed tomography image quality on a novel biological-guided radiotherapy platform
AU - Zhuang, Tingliang
AU - Gibbard, Grant
AU - Duan, Xinhui
AU - Tan, Jun
AU - Park, Yang
AU - Lin, Mu Han
AU - Sun, Zhihui
AU - Oderinde, Oluwaseyi M.
AU - Lu, Weiguo
AU - Reynolds Jr., Robert Ray
AU - Godley, Andrew
AU - Pompos, Arnold
AU - Dan, Tu
AU - Garant, Aurelie
AU - Iyengar, Puneeth
AU - Timmerman, Robert
AU - Jiang, Steve
AU - Cai, Bin
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s)
PY - 2023/4
Y1 - 2023/4
N2 - Background and Purpose: A recently developed biology-guided radiotherapy platform, equipped with positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT), provides both anatomical and functional image guidance for radiotherapy. This study aimed to characterize performance of the kilovoltage CT (kVCT) system on this platform using standard quality metrics measured on phantom and patient images, using CT simulator images as reference. Materials and Methods: Image quality metrics, including spatial resolution/modular transfer function (MTF), slice sensitivity profile (SSP), noise performance and image uniformity, contrast-noise ratio (CNR) and low-contrast resolution, geometric accuracy, and CT number (HU) accuracy, were evaluated on phantom images. Patient images were evaluated mainly qualitatively. Results: On phantom images the MTF10% is about 0.68 lp/mm for kVCT in PET/CT Linac. The SSP agreed with nominal slice thickness within 0.7 mm. The diameter of the smallest visible target (1% contrast) is about 5 mm using medium dose mode. The image uniformity is within 2.0 HU. The geometric accuracy tests passed within 0.5 mm. Relative to CT simulator images, the noise is generally higher and the CNR is lower in PET/CT Linac kVCT images. The CT number accuracy is comparable between the two systems with maximum deviation from the phantom manufacturer range within 25 HU. On patient images, higher spatial resolution and image noise are observed on PET/CT Linac kVCT images. Conclusions: Major image quality metrics of the PET/CT Linac kVCT were within vendor-recommended tolerances. Better spatial resolution but higher noise and better/comparable low contrast visibility were observed as compared to a CT simulator when images were acquired with clinical protocols.
AB - Background and Purpose: A recently developed biology-guided radiotherapy platform, equipped with positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT), provides both anatomical and functional image guidance for radiotherapy. This study aimed to characterize performance of the kilovoltage CT (kVCT) system on this platform using standard quality metrics measured on phantom and patient images, using CT simulator images as reference. Materials and Methods: Image quality metrics, including spatial resolution/modular transfer function (MTF), slice sensitivity profile (SSP), noise performance and image uniformity, contrast-noise ratio (CNR) and low-contrast resolution, geometric accuracy, and CT number (HU) accuracy, were evaluated on phantom images. Patient images were evaluated mainly qualitatively. Results: On phantom images the MTF10% is about 0.68 lp/mm for kVCT in PET/CT Linac. The SSP agreed with nominal slice thickness within 0.7 mm. The diameter of the smallest visible target (1% contrast) is about 5 mm using medium dose mode. The image uniformity is within 2.0 HU. The geometric accuracy tests passed within 0.5 mm. Relative to CT simulator images, the noise is generally higher and the CNR is lower in PET/CT Linac kVCT images. The CT number accuracy is comparable between the two systems with maximum deviation from the phantom manufacturer range within 25 HU. On patient images, higher spatial resolution and image noise are observed on PET/CT Linac kVCT images. Conclusions: Major image quality metrics of the PET/CT Linac kVCT were within vendor-recommended tolerances. Better spatial resolution but higher noise and better/comparable low contrast visibility were observed as compared to a CT simulator when images were acquired with clinical protocols.
KW - CT simulator
KW - Image quality
KW - PET/CT Linac
KW - kV fan-beam CT
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U2 - 10.1016/j.phro.2023.100438
DO - 10.1016/j.phro.2023.100438
M3 - Article
C2 - 37342208
AN - SCOPUS:85152732058
SN - 2405-6316
VL - 26
JO - Physics and Imaging in Radiation Oncology
JF - Physics and Imaging in Radiation Oncology
M1 - 100438
ER -