Estimation of Noise and Contrast for CTA of the Brain

Abstract: Computed tomography angiography (CTA) of the brain poses challenges on the imaging system; the contrast between blood vessels and surrounding soft tissue is very low, and to render small intricate vessel structures high spatial resolution is needed. Higher precision angiography would facilitate more accurate diagnosis of pathological conditions. The aim of this work was to analyze the factors which contribute to the image quality in cerebrovascular imaging contexts and make a comparison between state-of-the-art energy-integrating and photon counting CT systems. A geometrical model was devised to mimic the conditions of cerebral angiography. Different parameters and detectors were used to reconstruct images of a spherical head phantom. Compton noise was added to several image acquisitions after a Monte Carlo study was used to estimate the scatter to primary ratio (SPR) with a spherical phantom. The images were evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively. A real phantom was scanned with an experimental photon counting detector and compared with the simulated approach. The work resulted in qualitative reconstructed images, a decrease in SPR when introducing air gaps and improved resolution but worsened contrast as a result of smaller detector sizes. The SPR was shown to be higher in cone-beam geometry than fan-beam geometry. Electronic noise present with energy integrating detectors was shown to degrade image quality significantly in low dose imaging, reducing contrast when imaging vascular-like structures. Photon counting detectors without electronic noise could provide greater image quality and better diagnostic information.