Investigation of CT numbers correction of kilo-voltage cone-beam CT images for accurate dose calculation / 中华放射肿瘤学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study CT numbers correction of kilo?voltage cone?beam CT (KV?CBCT) images for dose calculation. Method Aligning the CBCT images with plan CT images, then obtain the background scatter by subtracting CT images from CBCT images. The background scatter is then processed by low?pass filter. The final CBCT images are acquired by subtracting the background scatter from the raw CBCT. KV?CBCT images of Catphan600 phantom and four patients with pelvic tumors were obtained with the linac?integrated CBCT system. The CBCT images were modified to correct the CT numbers. Finally, compare HU numbers between corrected CBCT and planning CT by paired T test. Evaluate the image quality and accuracy of dose calculation of the modified CBCT images. Results The proposed method reduces the artifacts of CBCT images significantly. The differences of CT numbers were 232 HU, 89 HU, 29 HU and 66 HU for air, fat, muscle and femoral head between CT and CBCT respectively (P= 0?? 39,0?? 66,0?? 59,1).The differences of CT numbers between CT and CBCT was reduced to within 5 HU. And the error of dose calculation with corrected CBCT images was within 2%. Conclusions The CT numbers of corrected CBCT are similar with plan CT images and dose calculations based on the modified CBCT show good agreement with plan CT.