Low-dose performance of a whole-body research photon-counting CT scanner

Photon-counting CT (PCCT) is an emerging technique that may bring new possibilities to clinical practice. Compared to conventional CT, PCCT is able to exclude electronic noise that may severely impair image quality at low photon counts. This work focused on assessing the low-dose performance of a whole-body research PCCT scanner consisting of two subsystems, one equipped with an energy-integrating detector, and the other with a photon-counting detector. Evaluation of the low-dose performance of the research PCCT scanner was achieved by comparing the noise performance of the two subsystems, with an emphasis on examining the impact of electronic noise on image quality in low-dose situations.

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