System and method for multi-energy X-ray imaging using a polychromatic source

1. A system for generating multi-energy computed tomography (CT) images of a subject, the system comprising:

a polychromatic x-ray source configured to generate a polychromatic x-ray beam;

a detector array arranged to receive the polychromatic x-ray beam after traversing through the subject and generate attenuation data responsive to receiving the polychromatic x-ray beam;

a computer system configured to:

acquire a measure of a polychromatic spectrum of the polychromatic x-ray beam;

receive the attenuation data from the detector array;

segment the attenuation data based on a plurality of component criteria to create a plurality of segmented datasets;

generate template data from the segmented datasets;

using the template data and the measure of the polychromatic spectrum, generate polychromatic synthetic data;

using the template data and each of the segmented datasets, generate component synthetic data; and

using the attenuation data, the polychromatic synthetic data, and the component synthetic data, reconstruct a plurality of multi-energy images, including separable images weighted for each of the component criteria.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the computer system is configured to generate polychromatic synthetic projection data by forward projecting the template data using the attenuation data.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the computer is further configured to generate the component synthetic data by forward projecting the template data using the plurality of segmented datasets.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the computer is further configured to reconstruct the plurality of multi-energy images by multiplying the attenuation data by a ratio of one of the plurality of segmented datasets and the polychromatic synthetic data to create one of the separable images weighted for each of the component criteria.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the computer is further configured to select component criteria corresponding to attenuation thresholds of at least one of air, bone, and soft tissue.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the polychromatic x-ray source is the only x-ray source.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the computer is configured to control the polychromatic x-ray source to generate a polychromatic x-ray beam at a single, target energy.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the computer is configured to acquire the measure of the polychromatic spectrum by accessing an a priori measurement stored on a non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the computer is configured to generate the template data by selecting a mean CT number associated with the component criteria.

10. A method for generating multi-energy computed tomography images of a subject using a polychromatic x-ray source with single spectrum, the method comprising:

acquiring a measure of a polychromatic spectrum of a polychromatic x-ray beam generated by the polychromatic x-ray source with a single spectrum;

acquiring attenuation data generated by operating the polychromatic x-ray source with a single spectrum;

segmenting the attenuation data based on a plurality of attenuation thresholds corresponding to selected constituent materials of the subject to create a plurality of segmented datasets;

generating template data from the plurality of segmented datasets by replacing portions of the attenuation data with a mean CT number of the selected constituent materials;

generating polychromatic synthetic data by forward projecting the template data using the attenuation data;

generating component synthetic data by forward projecting the template data using the plurality of segmented datasets; and

using the attenuation data, the polychromatic synthetic data, and the component synthetic data, reconstruct a plurality of multi-energy images, including separable images weighted for each selected constituent materials.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein reconstructing includes multiplying the attenuation data by a ratio of a first of the plurality of segmented datasets and the polychromatic synthetic data to create one of the separable images weighted the first of the selected constituent materials.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the selected constituent materials include bone, soft tissue, and air.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the thresholds correspond to attenuations known to be associated with bone, soft tissue, and air.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein the polychromatic x-ray beam is generated using a single, target spectrum.

15. A method for generating multi-energy computed tomography images of a subject using a polychromatic x-ray source with single x-ray spectrum, the method comprising:

acquiring a measure of a polychromatic spectrum of a polychromatic x-ray beam generated by the polychromatic x-ray source;

acquiring attenuation data generated by operating the polychromatic x-ray source;

segmenting the attenuation data based on a plurality of component criteria to create a plurality of segmented datasets;

generating template data from the segmented datasets;

using the template data and the measure of the polychromatic spectrum, generating polychromatic synthetic data;

using the template data and each of the segmented datasets, generating component synthetic data; and

using the attenuation data, the polychromatic synthetic data, and the component synthetic data, reconstructing a plurality of multi-energy images, including separable images weighted for at least one of the component criteria.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein generating polychromatic synthetic projection data is performed by forward projecting the template data using the attenuation data.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein generating the component synthetic data is performed by forward projecting the template data using the plurality of segmented datasets.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein reconstructing the plurality of multi-energy images is performed by multiplying the attenuation data by a ratio of one of the plurality of segmented datasets and the polychromatic synthetic data to create one of the separable images weighted for each of the component criteria.

19. The method of claim 15 further comprising selecting component criteria corresponding to attenuation thresholds of at least one of air, bone, and soft tissue.

20. The method of claim 15 further comprising controlling the polychromatic x-ray source to generate a single polychromatic x-ray beam at a single, target energy to acquire all of the attenuation data.