Differentiation between blood and iodine in a bovine brain-Initial experience with Spectral Photon-Counting Computed Tomography (SPCCT)

Objectives To evaluate the accuracy of Spectral Photon-Counting Computed Tomography (SPCCT) in the quantification of iodine concentrations and its potential for the differentiation between blood and iodine. Methods Tubes with blood and a concentration series of iodine were scanned with a preclinical SPCCT system (both in vitro and in an ex vivo bovine brain tissue sample). Iodine density maps (IDM) and virtual non-contrast (VNC) images were generated using the multi-bin spectral information to perform material decomposition. Region-of-interest (ROI) analysis was performed within the tubes to quantitatively determine the absolute content of iodine (mg/ml). Results In conventional CT images, ROI analysis showed similar Hounsfield Unit (HU) values for the tubes with blood and iodine (59.9 +/- 1.8 versus 59.2 +/- 1.5). Iodine density maps enabled clear differentiation between blood and iodine in vitro, as well as in the bovine brain model. Quantitative measurements of the different iodine concentrations matched well with those of actual known concentrations even for very small iodine concentrations with values below 1mg/ml (RMSE = 0.19). Conclusions SPCCT providing iodine maps and virtual non-contrast images allows material decomposition, differentiation between blood and iodine in vitro and ex vivo in a bovine brain model and reliably quantifies the iodine concentration.