Potential of contrast agents based on high-Z elements for contrast-enhanced photon-counting computed tomography.

Abstract

In clinics, only iodine- and barium-based contrast agents are currently used for contrast-enhanced x-ray computed tomography (CT). Recently, the introduction of new photon-counting (PC) detectors increased the interest in developing new contrast agents based on heavier elements. These elements may provide more contrast and spectral information compared to iodine and barium thanks to their k-edges at higher energies. In this paper, the potential of high-Z elements in contrast-enhanced CT was evaluated for different patient sizes and x-ray spectra using a PC detector.