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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Phys.
Sec. Medical Physics and Imaging
Volume 12 - 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/fphy.2024.1454854
electronCT -An Imaging Technique Using Very-high Energy Electrons
Provisionally accepted- 1 Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Hamburg, Germany
- 2 University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
- 3 University of Bonn, Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
The electronCT technique is an imaging method based on the multiple Coulomb scattering of relativistic electrons and has potential applications in medical and industrial imaging. It utilizes a pencil beam of electrons in the very high energy electron (VHEE, 50-250 MeV) range and a single detection layer for the determination of the beam profile. The technique constitutes a projectional, two-dimensional imaging method and thus also qualifies for the tomographic reconstruction of samples. Given the simplicity of the technical setup and its location behind the sample, the electronCT technique has potential synergies with VHEE radiotherapy, making use of the same electron source for both treatment and diagnostics and thus being a candidate for in-situ imaging and patient localization. At the same time, several technical challenges arise from the measurement technique when applied for the imaging of living beings. Measurements performed at the ARES linear particle accelerator at an electron energy of 155 MeV using a mouse phantom and a Timepix3 silicon pixel detector assembly demonstrate the feasibility of this technique. Both projectional and tomographic reconstructions are presented and the potential and limits of the technology are discussed.
Keywords: electronCT, medical imaging, multiple scattering, AREs, VHEE, Timepix3, radiation therapy
Received: 25 Jun 2024; Accepted: 25 Sep 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 Schütze, Abel, Burkart, de Silva, Dinter, Dojan, Herkert, Jaster-Merz, Kellermeier, Kuropka, Mayet, Ruiz Daza, Spannagel, Vinatier and Wennlöf. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Paul Schütze, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Hamburg, Germany
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