Dynamic electronic collimation method for 3-D catheter tracking on a scanning-beam digital x-ray system

Scanning-beam digital x-ray (SBDX) is an inverse geometry x-ray fluoroscopy system capable of tomosynthesis-based 3-D catheter tracking. This work proposes a method of dose-reduced 3-D catheter tracking using dynamic electronic collimation (DEC) of the SBDX scanning x-ray tube. This is achieved through the selective deactivation of focal spot positions not needed for the catheter tracking task. The technique was retrospectively evaluated with SBDX detector data recorded during a phantom study. DEC imaging of a catheter tip at isocenter required 340 active focal spots per frame versus 4473 spots in full field-of-view (FOV) mode. The dose-area product (DAP) and peak skin dose (PSD) for DEC versus full FOV scanning were calculated using an SBDX Monte Carlo simulation code. The average DAP was reduced to 7.8% of the full FOV value, consistent with the relative number of active focal spots (7.6%). For image sequences with a moving catheter, PSD was 33.6% to 34.8% of the full FOV value. The root-mean-squared-deviation between DEC-based 3-D tracking coordinates and full FOV 3-D tracking coordinates was less than 0.1 mm. The 3-D distance between the tracked tip and the sheath centerline averaged 0.75 mm. DEC is a feasible method for dose reduction during SBDX 3-D catheter tracking.