Dual energy contrast enhanced X-ray CT characterization of malignancies from single acquisition data sets

Contrast agents in CT and MRI investigations have been used for obtaining better diagnosis, including whether a nodule in the breast is benign or malignant. Cone beam CT images of breast cancer nodules have been taken with iodine contrast enhancement using two CT data sets, before and after iodine contrast injection. After the CT reconstructions, by subtracting the pre-contrast HU values from those obtained with iodine contrast at the nodules, the contrast enhancement values of the suspicious nodules were obtained. This article describes a method of determining mean “quantitative imaging biomarker” values such as calibrated mean contrast concentrations of enhancement agents like iodine contrast agents in X-ray CT in segmented nodules identified using X-ray CT image data obtained in a single CT data set acquisitions instead of using two datasets (before and after contrast agent injection). This method can be applied to different organs and/or different contrast agents by using dual energy values optimized for the given cases by carefully calibrating the CT values for each energy pair.