Examination of energy subtraction method

by using diffracted monochromatic x rays

Taku Kuramoto1, Koji Maeda2, Hideki Sakakibara3, Yuki Nakahara4,
Akinori Wataru5, Yoshitake Ueda2, Masao Matsumoto6, Akira Machida1 and Toru Muranaka1
1

Department of Radiology, Clinical Research Institution, National Kyushu Medical Center, Fukuoka, Japan
2
Faculty of Health Sciences, Hiroshima International University, Higashi-Hiroshima, Japan
3
Graduate School of Integrated Human Sciences Studies, Hiroshima International University, Higashi-Hiroshima, Japan
4
Department of Radiology, Yamaguchi University Hospital, Ube, Japan
5
Department of Imaging Diagnosis, Shizuoka Cancer Center, Shizuoka Prefecture Shunto-gun, Japan
6
Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Suita, Japan
Abstract The purpose of this research is to apply monochromatic x rays to the energy subtraction (ES) method. The ES
method is a technique that eliminates an image of an arbitrary
material by subtracting two images acquired by x rays with
different energy owing to a peculiar energy dependence of an
absorption coefficient of each material. Namely, the ES method allows us to identify each material. The most ideal ES
method can be carried out using two kinds of energy of monochromatic x rays. However, in general, the white x rays is
used under clinical conditions, so the materials that have the
same absorption coefficient are sometimes presented as different ones because of the influence of the x-ray-beam hardening.
Using monochromatic x rays will improve the powerto discriminate materials having the similar absorption coefficient. So,
use of diffracted monochromatic x rays generated with a diffraction single crystal is the most suitable method in clinical
situations.
In the present study, the ES processing uses the profile
curve obtained by the two shot method. Influence of the beam
hardening was evaluated from a profile curve of monochromatic x rays and white x rays after ES processing. The result
shows that the use of monochromatic x rays has the high ability to identify each material.

monochromatic x rays will improve the power to discriminate materials having the similar absorption coefficient.
There are some methods to generate monochromatic x rays.
In general, monochromatic photons can be obtained by
gamma rays from radioisotope, the synchrotron orbital radiation (SOR) facilities, and diffraction of white x rays. But,
there are some problems in these methods. As for radioisotope, the control, the dose rate and the size become the
problems. The SOR facilities are not unsuitable for general
clinical use because of large scale and high cost. So, using
diffracted monochromatic x rays generated with a diffraction single crystal is the most suitable method in clinical
situations.
In the present study, the ES method is attempted to
identify a material by the diffracted monochromatic x rays
generated from usual x-ray tube in clinical use.
The ES method was performed according to two shot
method. In addition, influence of the beam hardening was
evaluated from a profile curve of monochromatic x rays and
white x rays after ES processing.

Keywords energy subtraction, monochromatic x rays, beam

hardening, x-ray diffraction

I. INTRODUCTION
The energy subtraction (ES) method is a technique that
eliminates an image of an arbitrary material by subtracting
two images acquired by x rays with different energy owing
to a peculiar energy dependence of an absorption coefficient
of each material. Namely, the ES method allows us to identify each material. The most ideal ES method can be carried
out using two kinds of energy of monochromatic x rays.
However, in general, the white x rays is used under clinical
conditions, so the materials that have the same absorption
coefficient are sometimes presented as different ones because of the influence of the x-ray beam hardening. Using

II. MATERIALS AND METHODS

A. Generation of monochromatic x rays
Diffracted monochromatic x rays are generated under the
Bragg condition. The Bragg condition is described by the
following equation,
2d sin T

nO ,

where n is an arbitrary positive integer. When lattice spacing d and x-ray incident angle satisfy the Bragg condition
in the x-ray diffraction, monochromatic x rays of energy
wavelength are taken out selectively.

O. Dssel and W.C. Schlegel (Eds.): WC 2009, IFMBE Proceedings 25/II, pp. 810812, 2009.
www.springerlink.com

Examination of Energy Subtraction Method by Using Diffracted Monochromatic X Rays

The diffraction method can select arbitrary energy of diffracted x rays by changing the angle of the incident x rays to
a single crystal. The diffraction crystal is an Al single crystal wafer with surface orientation {111}. In the ES method
with white x rays, tube voltages were set 60 and 100 kV.
The effective energies obtained from the half value layer
were 27.2 and 45.0 keV. So, the energy of monochromatic x
rays was set as the same energy as the effective energy of
white x rays. The monochromatic x-ray spectra were measured with a high-resolution Schottky CdTe detector system
(Toyo Medic, RAMTEC413).

811

15 mm

Al
1 mm
Acryl
7 mm
5 mm

2 mm

15 mm

Fig. 2 Phantom

B. Acquisition of the ES images

Figure 1 shows an experiment setup. An x-ray tube (Hitachi, U-6CE-55TB) and a high-voltage generator (Hitachi,
HF-153HII) are generally in clinical use. The images were
acquired with an imaging plate (IP) (Fuji film, ST-VN, 100
PSL[HO7KHGLVWDQFHIURPWKH[-ray focal spot to the Al
single crystal wafer was set 18 cm, the distance from the Al
single crystal wafer to a phantom was 30 cm, and the distance from the phantom to an IP was 20 cm.
Schematic drawing of the phantom for the present experiment is shown in Figure 2. This phantom is made of Al (5nine purity) and CoCl2aq (3 mol/l). The effective atomic
number 14.77 of CoCl2aq (3 mol/l) is nearly equal to the
atomic number 13 of Al. The phantom was stacked with
five Al plates of 1 mm thickness like steps. A 7mm thick
acrylic board under the Al steps had 2 mm 5 mm rectangular holes and CoCl2aq was enclosed into these holes. The
acrylic board was placed under the Al steps so that the position of the rectangular holes was located at the center of the
Al steps.

As the beam of monochromatic x rays was narrow fan

beam, the phantom was scanned by a movable precision
stage. So, to keep the same condition, the image with white
x rays was obtained by the similar scanning method.
C. Acquisition of the ES images
The ES method was performed with the profile curve of
acquired image. The ROI to obtain the profile curve was set
in the direction parallel with the Al steps.
The ES method is described by the following equation,
(Subtracted Profile) =
K (High Energy Profile) (Low Energy Profile).
Here, K is a weighting factor of the ES method. In this experiment, the weighting coefficient K was chosen so that the
profile of Al steps was fully subtracted.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Focal Spot
18 cm
Diffraction Crystal

30 cm
1mm Slit
Phantom
20 cm

Imaging Plate
Movable precision stage

Fig. 1 Experiment setup

The spectra of diffracted monochromatic x rays are

shown in Figure 3. The spectra are normalized for the total
number of photons. The low-energy monochromatic x rays
of 30.0 keV and the high-energy monochromatic x rays of
48.6 keV were selected. Figure 4 (a) and (b) are profiles
after elimination of the image of the Al steps by the ES
process. The position 0 on the horizontal axis is the thickest
part of the Al steps. In the use of white x rays, even though
the concentration of CoCl2aq in the holes is identical, the
contrast of CoCl2aq varied with the thickness of the Al
steps. This variation of the contrast occurs due to the beam
hardening of white x rays. On the other hand, in the use of
monochromatic x rays, the contrast of CoCl2aq is almost
constant against the thickness change of the Al steps. The
whole CoCl2aq is accurately identified as the same material
without the influence of the beam hardening. The contrast

IFMBE Proceedings Vol. 25

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T. Kuramoto et al.

Relative Number of Photons

of CoCl2aq for monochromatic x rays is nearly four times

larger than that for white x rays when the effective energy is
equal in both the methods. Therefore, it is clearly shown
that the use of monochromatic x rays has the high ability to
identify each material.

IV. CONCLUSIONS
The ability of the ES method to identify materials was
quantitatively evaluated using monochromatic x rays. As a
result, it is found that the use of monochromatic x rays remarkably improves the ability of the ES method to identify
materials without an influence of the beam hardening.

1.0

REFERENCES
Low 30.0 keV

1.

High 48.6 keV

0.5

2.

0.0
0

20

40

60

80

Photon Enegry (keV)

3.

Sarnelli A, Taibi A, Tuffanelli A, et al.: K-edge digital subtraction

imaging based on a dichromatic and compact x-ray source. Physics in
Medicine and Biology 49: 3291-3305 (2004)
Maeda K, Kuramoto T, Oshita M, et al.: Evaluation of discriminating
power for energy subtraction technique based on monochromatic x
rays obtained by diffraction. Japanese Journal of Medical Phisics 26:
71-72 (2006)
Nakahara Y, Maeda K, Kuramoto T, et al.: Evaluation of one shot
energy subtraction methods by diffracted monochromatic x rays, Japanese Journal of Medical Physics 28: 59-60 (2008)

Fig. 3 Monochromatic x-ray spectrum of 30.0 and 48.6 keV

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Pixel Value

60
40
20
0
-20

thick

10

Al step

20

30

40

thin

50

60

70

Position (mm)

(a)

Pixel Value

60
40
20
0
-20

thick

10

Al step

20

30

40

thin

50

60

70

Position (mm)

(b)
Fig. 4 Profiles after the image of the Al steps is eliminated by the
ES process. (a) is the result with white x rays , and (b) is the result
with monochromatic x rays.

IFMBE Proceedings Vol. 25

Taku Kuramoto
National Kyushu Medical Center
1-8-1, Jigyohama, Chuo-ku
Fukuoka
Japan
t-kuramoto@kyumed.jp