title: Analytic comparison between X-ray fluorescence CT and K-edge CT.
abstract: X-ray fluorescence computed tomography (XFCT) and K-edge computed tomography (CT) are two important modalities to quantify a distribution of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) in a small animal for preclinical studies. It is valuable to determine which modality is more efficient for a given application. In this paper, we report a theoretical analysis in terms of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the two modalities, showing that there is a threshold of GNPs concentration such that XFCT has a better SNR than K-edge CT when GNPs concentration is less than this threshold, vice versa. Numerical tests are performed for XFCT and K-edge CT on two kinds of phantoms with multiple concentration levels and structural features. Experimental results illustrate that XFCT is superior to K-edge CT when contrast concentration is lower than 0.4% which coincides with the theoretical analysis.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Wenxiang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Cong
authors.forename: Biao
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Ge
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry; D061848:Optical Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D059629:Signal-To-Noise Ratio; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D006046:Gold