Accuracy and Dose in Neutron Stimulated Emission Computed Tomography

Neutron stimulated emission computed tomography
(NSECT) is being developed as an experimental
technique for diagnosis of element related disorders
in humans. Preliminary experiments have demonstrated
strong potential for clinical diagnosis of liver iron
overload in patients. The technique s sensitivity to
high concentrations of iron combined with its
non-invasive tomographic acquisition ability gives it
a unique advantage over other imaging methods. This
work explores a tomographic clinical application of
NSECT for diagnosis of liver iron overload and
optimizes the acquisition system to maximize accuracy
and minimize patient dose. Monte-Carlo simulations of
the NSECT system have been developed in GEANT4 and
used to determine quantification accuracy, detection
sensitivity and patient dose for several different
scanning and acquisition geometries in NSECT. The
research performed in this work demonstrates that
NSECT has strong potential for iron overload
diagnosis in patients and provides a validated
simulation tool which can be used to guide the
development of future clinical NSECT systems.

Autorentext
Dr. Kapadia graduated from Duke University in 2007 and is
currently a Research Associate at the Duke Advanced Imaging
Laboratories at Duke University, Durham, NC, USA. He continues to
pursue the development of NSECT imaging for medical applications.

Klappentext
Neutron stimulated emission computed tomography (NSECT) is being developed as an experimental technique for diagnosis of element related disorders in humans. Preliminary experiments have demonstrated strong potential for clinical diagnosis of liver iron overload in patients. The technique's sensitivity to high concentrations of iron combined with its non-invasive tomographic acquisition ability gives it a unique advantage over other imaging methods. This work explores a tomographic clinical application of NSECT for diagnosis of liver iron overload and optimizes the acquisition system to maximize accuracy and minimize patient dose. Monte-Carlo simulations of the NSECT system have been developed in GEANT4 and used to determine quantification accuracy, detection sensitivity and patient dose for several different scanning and acquisition geometries in NSECT. The research performed in this work demonstrates that NSECT has strong potential for iron overload diagnosis in patients and provides a validated simulation tool which can be used to guide the development of future clinical NSECT systems.