System and method for energy sensitive computed tomography

1. An energy-sensitive computed tomography system, comprising:

a gantry configured to rotate around an object;

an X-ray source coupled to said gantry and configured to emit an X-ray beam to be incident upon the object;

a detector coupled to said gantry, said detector comprising a plurality of detector elements configured to receive the X-ray beam transmitted through the object and produce a plurality of signals that represent intensity data of the X-ray beam;

a filter disposed between said X-ray source and said detector, said filter comprises a first plurality of sections configured to shape a portion of the X-ray beam to be received by a first subset of said plurality of detector elements into a total energy spectrum, and a second plurality of sections configured to shape a portion of the X-ray beam to be received by a second subset of said plurality of detector elements into a high energy spectrum;

a computer coupled to the detector, wherein said computer is configured to:

interpolate intensity data of at least one of the high-energy spectrum and the total-energy spectrum, and

determine, from the interpolated intensity data, intensity data corresponding to a low-energy spectrum.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein said filter comprises an alternating pattern of a plurality of attenuating materials.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the alternating pattern comprises at least one of a checkerboard pattern, an alternating row pattern, an alternating column pattern, and an alternating pack pattern.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein said detector comprises a photon-counting detector.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein said detector comprises an energy-integrating detector.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the X-ray source is configured to operate at a voltage between 80 kV and 200 kV.

7. A method of energy-sensitive computed tomography imaging, the method comprising:

emitting an X-ray beam from an X-ray source coupled to a gantry configured to rotate around an object;

receiving, via a detector comprising a plurality of detector elements, the X-ray beam transmitted through the object;

provide, via the detector, a plurality of signals that represent intensity data of the X-ray beam;

outputting, via a filter disposed between the X-ray source and the detector, a high-energy spectrum and a total energy spectrum;

interpolating, via a computer, intensity data of at least one of the high-energy spectrum and the total-energy spectrum, and

determining, from the interpolated intensity data, intensity data corresponding to a low-energy spectrum.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the filter comprises at least one of a checkerboard pattern, an alternating row pattern, an alternating column pattern, and an alternating pack pattern of attenuating materials.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein

determining, from the interpolated intensity data, intensity data corresponding to a low-energy spectrum comprises subtracting the interpolated intensity data of the high-energy spectrum from the intensity data from the total-energy spectrum or subtracting the interpolated intensity data of the total-energy spectrum from the intensity data from the high-energy spectrum to obtain intensity data corresponding to the low-energy spectrum.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising calculating at least one of a material decomposition of the object and an effective atomic number distribution within the object based upon intensity data generated from the high-energy spectrum and the low-energy spectrum.

11. The method of claim 7 , further comprising operating the X-ray source at a voltage between 80 and 200 kV.

12. The method of claim 7 , wherein the detector comprises an energy-integrating detector.

13. The method of claim 7 , wherein the detector comprises a photon-counting detector.

14. An energy-sensitive computed tomography system, comprising:

a gantry configured to rotate around an object;

an X-ray source coupled to said gantry and configured to emit an X-ray beam to be incident upon the object;

a detector comprising a plurality of detector elements, said detector configured to receive the X-ray beam transmitted through the object and produce a plurality of signals that represent intensity data of the X-ray beam; and

a filter disposed between said X-ray source and said detector, said filter comprising a first plurality of sections configured to shape a portion of the X-ray beam into a first spectrum, and a second plurality of sections configured to shape a portion of the X-ray beam into a second spectrum;

a computer configured to:

receive a plurality of intensity measurements from said plurality of detector elements, wherein said detector facilitates simultaneously measuring an intensity of the X-ray beam transmitted through the object in the first spectrum and an intensity of the X-ray beam transmitted through the object in the second spectrum;

interpolate a set of intensity data of the X-ray beam in the first spectrum and/or the second spectrum; and

calculate, from the interpolated set of intensity data and the plurality of intensity measurements, a set of intensity data corresponding to an intensity of the X-ray beam transmitted through the object in a third spectrum.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein said first plurality of sections and said second plurality of sections are disposed in an alternating pattern.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the alternating pattern comprises at least one of a checkerboard pattern, an alternating row pattern, an alternating column pattern, and an alternating pack pattern.

17. The system of claim 14 , wherein the first spectrum is a total-energy spectrum, the second spectrum is a high-energy spectrum, and the third spectrum is a low-energy spectrum.