Speaker
Maria Cristina Montesi
(INFN Napoli)
Description
In the framework of a national project for new imaging techniques for breast
cancer diagnosis we are implementing an X-ray Computed Tomography (CT)
system, with a design resolution of 1 mm, on the gantry of a dedicated
scintillator based single photon emission tomography (SPECT) system for
breast Tc-99m imaging, to allow for anatomical co-registration of the
radionuclide tomographic slices recorded with the SPECT system. We studied
the impact of using a semiconductor based single photon counting detector
as detector unit in our X-ray CT system. The detector is a 0.7 mm thick
silicon pixel detector (256x256 pixel, 55 micron pitch) bump-bonded to the
Medipix2 photon counting readout chip realized by the Medipix2
collaboration. Specifically, we evaluated the beam hardening ”cupping”
artefact using homogeneous PMMA cylinders of 12 cm and 14 cm diameter,
used as uncompressed breast tissue phantoms, imaged with the 14 mm x
14 mm silicon pixel detector and two X-ray tubes: either a Mo-anode tube or
a W-anode tube, operated at 50 kVp, with a 2 mm Al equivalent filtration.
Author
Maria Cristina Montesi
(INFN Napoli)
Co-author
Paolo Russo
(INFN Napoli)
