IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. NS-25, pp. 657-660 (1978)

The application of protons to computed tomography

K. M. Hanson, J. N. Bradbury, T. M. Cannon, R. L. Hutson, D. B. Laubacher, R. Macek, M. A. Paciotti and C. A. Taylor
Los Alamos National Laboratory

Abstract

The results of an experiment arc presented which verify previous calculations that indicate protons can be used to obtain computed tomographic (CT) reconstructions with a considerably lower dose than that required by x rays for reconstructions of the same quality. Furthermore, the use of protons virtually eliminates the beam hardening artifacts encountered in x-ray CT scanners. A CT density reconstruction of a 30-cm-diameter phantom obtained with 240 MeV protons at LAMPF is compared with a reconstruction of the same phantom obtained with a commercial x-ray scanner, the advantages and disadvantages of this application of protons are discussed.

Keywords: proton computed tomography, proton radiography, low-dose scanning, proton energy loss, straggling, phantom

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