CN214907115U - Energy spectrum imaging system - Google Patents

Abstract

The utility model relates to an X ray imaging technology field provides an energy spectrum imaging system, include: the ray emission mechanism is provided with a ray emission end; the imaging receiving mechanism is provided with a ray receiving end which is arranged opposite to the ray transmitting end of the ray transmitting mechanism; the filtering mechanism is arranged in front of a ray receiving end of the imaging receiving mechanism and is provided with at least two filtering units, and the filtering units are used for separating rays transmitted by the ray transmitting mechanism and penetrating through the object to be detected into rays with at least different energies; the imaging receiving mechanism simultaneously receives the rays separated by the filtering mechanism and transmits the data to the computing unit. The energy spectrum imaging system can realize dual-energy or multi-energy imaging by one-time scanning, improves the detection efficiency, reduces the harm of radiation to patients, does not need to change the internal crystal structure, materials and related manufacturing process of the existing area array detector, and is favorable for reducing the production cost.

Description

Energy spectrum imaging system

Technical Field

The utility model relates to an X ray imaging technology field, concretely relates to energy spectrum imaging system.

Background

The energy spectrum CT imaging technology can provide more image information than the conventional CT by utilizing different absorptions of substances generated by X-rays with different energies, not only can acquire the density and distribution images of the substances, but also can acquire energy spectrum images, and can calculate the effective atomic coefficient and the electron density of pathological changes or tissues on the basis of the energy spectrum CT imaging technology, thereby realizing specific tissue identification and having great application potential in the aspects of substance identification, bone density measurement and the like.

When an energy spectrum imaging system in the related technology carries out energy spectrum CT imaging, a double-layer energy spectrum detector applying resolution energy is most commonly used, a conventional CT scanning scheme is adopted, low-energy rays and high-energy rays are respectively collected by an upper layer detector and a lower layer detector for energy collection, and then related energy spectrum calculation is carried out; in addition, a photon counting detector is commonly used, energy gating threshold values are set to divide energy spectrum channels, accumulated counting is respectively carried out on photon numbers in different energy spectrum regions, and more comprehensive energy spectrum information about different materials is obtained to further realize substance identification. However, the above two methods change the internal structure or semiconductor material of the detector, and have high implementation cost and complex structure.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

Therefore, the to-be-solved technical problem of the present invention is to overcome the defect that the energy spectrum imaging system in the related art has changed the internal structure or the semiconductor material of the detector, and the realization cost is high and the structure is complicated, thereby providing an energy spectrum imaging system.

The utility model provides an energy spectrum imaging system, include: the ray emission mechanism is provided with a ray emission end; the imaging receiving mechanism is provided with a ray receiving end, the ray receiving end is arranged opposite to the ray emitting end of the ray emitting mechanism, and an object to be detected is suitable to be arranged between the imaging receiving mechanism and the ray emitting mechanism; the filtering mechanism is arranged in front of a ray receiving end of the imaging receiving mechanism, at least two filtering units which are arranged in parallel are arranged on the filtering mechanism, and the filtering units are used for separating rays which are emitted by the ray emitting mechanism and penetrate through the object to be detected into rays with at least two different energies; the imaging receiving mechanism simultaneously receives the rays separated by the filtering mechanism and transmits data to the computing unit.

Optionally, the filtering mechanism comprises: the ray filter is provided with a filter unit array used for separating the rays, and the filter unit array is provided with at least two filter units.

Optionally, the two kinds of filter units are alternately arranged on the filter unit array in sequence along the transverse direction and the longitudinal direction.

Optionally, the filter unit on the ray filter is square.

Optionally, at least one of the filter units in the filter unit array is a cavity structure.

Optionally, the filter cell array is a single-layer structure.

Optionally, the imaging reception mechanism comprises: the planar array detector is provided with a crystal array for receiving rays, and crystal units on the crystal array correspond to filter units on the ray filter one to one.

Optionally, the shape of the crystal unit on the area array detector is the same as the shape of the filter unit on the ray filter.

Optionally, the area of the crystal unit on the area array detector is smaller than or equal to the area of the filter unit on the ray filter.

Optionally, the two filter units are both in a strip structure, and the two filter units are arranged on the filter unit array along the transverse direction.

The utility model discloses technical scheme has following advantage:

the utility model provides an energy spectrum imaging system has set up filtering mechanism before imaging receiving mechanism's receiving terminal, during the use, X ray is sent to ray emission mechanism's ray transmitting terminal, and X ray passes behind the scanned object, passes the filtering unit that has different transmission ability, later falls into the ray that the energy is different, and the ray that the energy is different is received by imaging receiving mechanism's ray receiving terminal to with data transmission to calculating unit, can generate dual energy or energy spectrum image to same scanned object at last. The energy spectrum imaging system can realize dual-energy or multi-energy imaging by one-time scanning, improves the detection efficiency, reduces the harm of radiation to patients, does not need to change the internal crystal structure, materials and related manufacturing process of the existing area array detector, and is favorable for reducing the production cost.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings used in the embodiments or the technical solutions in the prior art will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are some embodiments of the present invention, and for those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained according to these drawings without creative efforts.

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of an energy spectrum imaging system provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a radiation filter in a spectral imaging system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a graph of data for two different energy rays obtained using the ray filter of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of interpolation processing of data obtained using the ray filter of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a further schematic illustration of interpolation processing of data obtained using the ray filter of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of processing the data of FIG. 4 using binning;

FIG. 7 is a graph showing the results of the processing of FIG. 6;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a radiation filter in a spectral imaging system according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a graph illustrating data obtained using the radiation filter of FIG. 8 for four different energies of radiation;

FIG. 10 is a schematic illustration of interpolation processing of data obtained using the ray filter of FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a further schematic illustration of interpolation processing of data obtained using the ray filter of FIG. 9;

FIG. 12 is a further schematic illustration of interpolation processing of data obtained using the ray filter of FIG. 9;

FIG. 13 is a further schematic illustration of interpolation processing of data obtained using the ray filter of FIG. 9;

FIG. 14 is a schematic illustration of processing the data of FIG. 10 using binning;

FIG. 15 is a graph showing the results of the processing of FIG. 14;

fig. 16 is a schematic structural diagram of a radiation filter in a spectral imaging system according to still another embodiment of the present invention.

Description of reference numerals:

1. a radiation filter; 2. A first filtering unit; 3. A second filtering unit;

4. a third filtering unit; 5. And a fourth filtering unit.

Detailed Description

The technical solution of the present invention will be described clearly and completely with reference to the accompanying drawings, and obviously, the described embodiments are some, but not all embodiments of the present invention. Based on the embodiments in the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by a person skilled in the art without creative work belong to the protection scope of the present invention.

In the description of the present invention, it should be noted that the terms "center", "upper", "lower", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "inner", "outer", and the like indicate orientations or positional relationships based on the orientations or positional relationships shown in the drawings, and are only for convenience of description and simplification of description, but do not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and thus, should not be construed as limiting the present invention. Furthermore, the terms "first," "second," and "third" are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance.

In the description of the present invention, it is to be noted that, unless otherwise explicitly specified or limited, the terms "mounted," "connected," and "connected" are to be construed broadly, and may be, for example, fixedly connected, detachably connected, or integrally connected; can be mechanically or electrically connected; they may be connected directly or indirectly through intervening media, or they may be interconnected between two elements. The specific meaning of the above terms in the present invention can be understood in specific cases to those skilled in the art.

Furthermore, the technical features mentioned in the different embodiments of the invention described below can be combined with each other as long as they do not conflict with each other.

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of an energy spectrum imaging system provided in an embodiment of the present invention; as shown in fig. 1, the utility model provides an energy spectrum imaging system, include: the ray emission mechanism is provided with a ray emission end; the imaging receiving mechanism is provided with a ray receiving end, the ray receiving end is arranged opposite to the ray emitting end of the ray emitting mechanism, and an object to be detected is suitable to be arranged between the imaging receiving mechanism and the ray emitting mechanism; the filtering mechanism is arranged in front of a ray receiving end of the imaging receiving mechanism and is provided with at least two filtering units which are arranged in parallel, and the filtering units are used for separating rays which are emitted by the ray emitting mechanism and penetrate through an object to be detected into rays with at least two different energies; the imaging receiving mechanism simultaneously receives the rays separated by the filtering mechanism and transmits the data to the computing unit.

The utility model provides an energy spectrum imaging system has set up filtering mechanism before imaging receiving mechanism's receiving terminal, during the use, X ray is sent to ray emission mechanism's ray transmitting terminal, and X ray passes behind the scanned object, passes the filtering unit that has different transmission ability, later falls into the ray that the energy is different, and the ray that the energy is different is received by imaging receiving mechanism's ray receiving terminal to with data transmission to calculating unit, can generate dual energy or energy spectrum image to same scanned object at last. The energy spectrum imaging system can realize dual-energy or multi-energy imaging by one-time scanning, improves the detection efficiency, reduces the harm of radiation to patients, does not need to change the internal crystal structure, materials and related manufacturing process of the existing area array detector, and is favorable for reducing the production cost.

For example, the spectral imaging system may be a cone-beam CT scanning system or a direct digital radiography system.

For example, the radiation emitting mechanism may be a radiation generator, the emitting end of the radiation emitting mechanism may emit X-rays for scanning, and when scanning is required, the radiation emitting mechanism emits radiation and may rotate around the object to be detected to scan the object to be detected by 360 °. For example, two types of filter units, namely the first filter unit 2 and the second filter unit 3, may be provided in the filter mechanism, and the two types of filter units have different transmittances for the X-rays, for example, the transmittance of the first filter unit 2 for the X-rays is higher than that of the second filter unit 3, and the X-rays are converted into high-energy X-rays and low-energy X-rays after passing through the filter mechanism. For example, the imaging receiving mechanism may be an area array detector, which is dedicated to receiving the high-energy X-rays and the low-energy X-rays passing through the object to be detected, and may feed back the received ray data to the computing unit. For example, the computing unit may be a computer and may generate an image from the received ray data.

The filtering mechanism in this embodiment may be an independent component, and may be disposed in front of the area array detector, and separate the radiation into the radiation with different energies after the radiation scans the object to be detected.

Fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a radiation filter in a spectral imaging system according to an embodiment of the present invention; as shown in fig. 2, in one embodiment, the filtering mechanism includes: the ray filter 1 is provided with a filter unit array for separating rays, and the filter unit array is provided with at least two filter units which are arranged in parallel.

For example, the filter cell array may include two kinds of filter cells, i.e., a first filter cell 2 and a second filter cell 3, and the first filter cell 2 and the second filter cell 3 are alternately arranged on the filter cell array in sequence along the transverse direction and the longitudinal direction.

For example, the filtering unit may further include four kinds of filtering units, that is, a first filtering unit 2, a second filtering unit 3, a third filtering unit 4, and a fourth filtering unit 5, where the first filtering unit 2, the second filtering unit 3, the third filtering unit 4, and the fourth filtering unit 5 are alternately arranged in sequence along a counterclockwise direction or a clockwise direction.

For example, the filtering unit may further include nine filtering units, that is, a first filtering unit 2, a second filtering unit 3, a third filtering unit 4, a fourth filtering unit 5, a fifth filtering unit, a sixth filtering unit, a seventh filtering unit, an eighth filtering unit, and a ninth filtering unit, where the nine filtering units may be arranged in an S-shape, and may also be distributed at different positions as needed.

In yet another embodiment, the filter cells on the radiation filter 1 are square.

For example, each filter unit may be square or circular.

In another embodiment, at least one of the filter units in the filter unit array has a cavity structure.

For example, different filter units may correspond to a transmissive filter material, which may be aluminum and copper, or air. For example, the thickness of the same filter material may be varied to vary its transmissivity.

In another embodiment, the array of filter cells is a single layer structure. For example, the body of the whole radiation filter 1 may be a substrate, for example, the whole substrate is a net frame structure, and different filter materials may be embedded in the corresponding grid regions. For example, the substrate is made of a certain filter material, a hole is formed at a desired position on the surface of the substrate to form a hollow area, and the hollow area is another filter material, that is, air. For example, the radiation filter 1 further includes a base plate disposed on a surface of the base plate, the base plate may be used for bonding or welding to the radiation emitting mechanism, and a thickness of the base plate may be set to be smaller to reduce energy attenuation when the X-ray passes through.

In yet another embodiment, an imaging receiving mechanism comprises: the area array detector is provided with a crystal array for receiving rays, and crystal units on the crystal array correspond to filter units on the ray filter 1 one by one. For example, the size of the filter unit may be 64 × 64, that is, 64 grid regions are arranged along the length direction of the substrate, and 64 grid regions are arranged along the width direction of the substrate. When the array type surface-array detector is used, the filtering units on the substrate can be aligned with the crystal array of the surface-array detector, and the imaging effect is improved.

In a further embodiment, the shape of the crystal unit on the area array detector is the same as the shape of the filter unit on the radiation filter 1.

In a further embodiment, the area of the crystal unit on the area array detector is smaller than or equal to the area of the filter unit on the radiation filter 1.

For example, when the area of the filter unit is the same as the size of the crystal unit of the area array detector, one crystal unit may correspond to one filter unit. For example, when the area of the filter unit is larger than the size of the crystal unit of the area array detector, one filter unit may correspond to a plurality of crystal units.

In another embodiment, the filtering mechanism may be packaged inside the area array detector, and after entering the area array detector, the rays are separated into rays with different energies and then reach the crystal unit of the area array detector.

In another embodiment, the filtering mechanism may be attached to an outer surface of the area array detector, and the radiation is separated into radiation with different energies before entering the area array detector, and then reaches the crystal unit of the area array detector.

The utility model also provides an energy spectrum imaging method, including following step: emitting rays towards an object to be detected through a ray emitting mechanism; after the ray passes through an object to be detected, the ray is separated into at least two rays with different energies through a filtering mechanism; the separated multiple rays are irradiated on the imaging receiving mechanism at the same time; after receiving the rays with different energies through the imaging receiving mechanism, the data are transmitted to the computing unit.

Taking an example of two kinds of filter units on the filter unit array, fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of data of two kinds of rays with different energies obtained by using the ray filter in fig. 2; FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of interpolation processing of data obtained using the ray filter of FIG. 3; FIG. 5 is a further schematic illustration of interpolation processing of data obtained using the ray filter of FIG. 3; FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of processing the data of FIG. 4 using binning; FIG. 7 is a graph showing the results of the processing of FIG. 6; wherein "a" in the various figures represents data acquired by rays of one energy, "B" represents data acquired by rays of yet another energy, "C" represents data acquired by rays of yet another energy, and "D" represents data acquired by rays of yet another energy. I.e., A, B, C and D, respectively, each correspond to data acquired by a ray of one energy.

As shown in fig. 3, in one scanning, the ray generator emits a beam with a high voltage, for example, 110KV, and the X-ray filtered by the ray filter 1 passes through the object to be detected, then reaches the receiving end of the area array detector, and finally is fed back to the computing unit for imaging. Among them, X-ray data passing through the first filter unit having a high X-ray transmittance is high energy data, and X-ray data passing through the second filter unit 3 having a low X-ray transmittance is low energy data. After data extraction, reconstruction is carried out to obtain two groups of projection images of high-energy data and low-energy data aiming at the same object, thereby realizing projection acquisition of dual-energy imaging.

For example, in one embodiment, the data with the "+" sign is completely supplemented by interpolation, as shown in fig. 4 and 5, to obtain two sets of data with the same number as the original sample, and then, the high-energy data and the low-energy data are obtained by pixel combination, as shown in fig. 6, and the number of samples is reduced to 1/2, as shown in fig. 7. And finally, obtaining linear attenuation coefficients of the scanned object under two energies by utilizing reconstruction, then selecting different base materials to carry out base material decomposition calculation on the detected object, and further obtaining an atomic number image and an electron density image to realize the identification of specific tissues.

Taking two kinds of filter units on the filter unit array as an example, fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a radiation filter in an energy spectrum imaging system according to another embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 9 is a graph illustrating data obtained using the radiation filter of FIG. 8 for four different energies of radiation; FIG. 10 is a schematic illustration of interpolation processing of data obtained using the ray filter of FIG. 9; FIG. 11 is a further schematic illustration of interpolation processing of data obtained using the ray filter of FIG. 9; FIG. 12 is a further schematic illustration of interpolation processing of data obtained using the ray filter of FIG. 9; FIG. 13 is a further schematic illustration of interpolation processing of data obtained using the ray filter of FIG. 9; FIG. 14 is a schematic illustration of processing the data of FIG. 10 using binning; FIG. 15 is a graph showing the results of the processing of FIG. 14. As shown in fig. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15, in another embodiment, the radiation filter 1 further includes a plurality of third filtering units 4 and fourth filtering units 5, and the first filtering unit 2, the second filtering unit 3, the third filtering unit 4 and the fourth filtering unit 5 are alternately arranged in sequence along a counterclockwise direction or a clockwise direction. The four filtering units are a small whole, and the distribution positions of the first filtering unit 2, the second filtering unit 3, the third filtering unit 4 and the fourth filtering unit 5 in the small whole can be designed as required, which is not limited herein. The use of the radiation filter 1 with four filter units is the same as the use of the radiation filter 1 with two filter units, and will not be described herein again.

Fig. 16 is a schematic structural diagram of a radiation filter in a spectral imaging system according to still another embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 16, the spectral imaging system may be, for example, a panoramic CT scanning system or a direct digital radiography system.

In this embodiment, both the two filter units are strip-shaped structures, which are respectively denoted as a first filter unit 2 and a second filter unit 3, and the first filter unit 2 and the second filter unit 3 are disposed on the substrate along the transverse direction.

For example, the size of the ray filter can be designed to be larger, and when the ray filter is used, the ray filter can be placed at the receiving end of the area array detector and completely blocks the surface of the detector. After the ray is emitted, the ray penetrates through a scanned object, then the ray penetrates through the first filtering unit 2 and can be a high-energy ray, the ray penetrates through the second filtering unit 3 and can be a low-energy ray, the two rays are received by the area array detector, the area array detector feeds back the received ray data to the computing unit of the energy spectrum imaging system, and finally a dual-energy image can be generated. And the ray generator can be rotated to scan and image different positions of the scanned object.

In conclusion, the dual-energy or even multi-energy imaging can be realized by one-time scanning of the energy spectrum imaging method, the detection efficiency is improved, the damage of radiation to a patient is reduced, the internal crystal structure, the material and the related manufacturing process of the existing area array detector are not required to be changed, and the cost is reduced.

It should be understood that the above examples are only for clarity of illustration and are not intended to limit the embodiments. Other variations and modifications will be apparent to persons skilled in the art in light of the above description. And are neither required nor exhaustive of all embodiments. And obvious variations or modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims (9)

1. A spectral imaging system, comprising:

the ray emission mechanism is provided with a ray emission end;

the imaging receiving mechanism is provided with a ray receiving end, the ray receiving end is arranged opposite to the ray emitting end of the ray emitting mechanism, and an object to be detected is suitable to be arranged between the imaging receiving mechanism and the ray emitting mechanism;

the filtering mechanism is arranged in front of a ray receiving end of the imaging receiving mechanism, at least two filtering units which are arranged in parallel are arranged on the filtering mechanism, and the filtering units are used for separating rays which are emitted by the ray emitting mechanism and penetrate through the object to be detected into rays with at least two different energies;

the imaging receiving mechanism simultaneously receives the rays separated by the filtering mechanism and transmits data to the computing unit.

2. The spectral imaging system of claim 1,

the filtering mechanism includes: the ray filter is provided with a filtering unit array used for separating the rays, and the filtering unit array is provided with at least two filtering units which are arranged in parallel.

3. The spectral imaging system of claim 2,

the two kinds of filtering units are sequentially and alternately arranged on the filtering unit array along the transverse direction and the longitudinal direction.

4. The spectral imaging system of claim 2,

and the filtering units on the ray filter are square.

5. The spectral imaging system of claim 2,

at least one filter unit in the filter units on the filter unit array is of a cavity structure.

6. The spectral imaging system of claim 2,

the filter unit array is of a single-layer structure.

7. The spectral imaging system of any of claims 2-6,

the imaging reception mechanism includes: the planar array detector is provided with a crystal array for receiving rays, and crystal units on the crystal array correspond to filter units on the ray filter one to one.

8. The spectral imaging system of claim 7,

the shape of the crystal unit on the area array detector is the same as that of the filtering unit on the ray filter;

the area of the crystal unit on the area array detector is smaller than or equal to the area of the filter unit on the ray filter.

9. The spectral imaging system of claim 2,

the two filtering units are of long strip-shaped structures and are arranged on the filtering unit array along the transverse direction.

Images