Super-Fast Three-Dimensional Focused X-ray Luminescence Computed Tomography with a Gated Photon Counter

X-ray luminescence computed tomography (XLCT) is a hybrid molecular imaging modality combining the merits of both x-ray imaging (high spatial resolution) and optical imaging (high sensitivity to tracer nanophosphors). Narrow x-ray beam based XLCT imaging has shown promise for high spatial resolution imaging, but the slow acquisition speed limits its applications for in vivo imaging. We introduced a continuous scanning scheme to replace the selective excitation scheme to improve imaging speed in a previous study. Under the continuous scanning scheme, the main factor that limits the scanning speed is the data acquisition time at each interval position. In this work, we have used a gated photon counter (SR400, Stanford Research Systems) to replace the high-speed oscilloscope (MDO3104, Tektronix) to acquire measurement data. The gated photon counter only counts the photon peaks in each measurement interval, while the oscilloscope records the entire waveform including both background noise data and photon peak data. The photon counter records much less data without losing any relevant information, which makes it ideal for super-fast three-dimensional (3D) imaging. We have built prototype XLCT imaging systems of both types and performed both single target and multiple target phantom experiments in 3D. The results have verified the feasibility of our proposed photon counter based system and good 3D imaging capabilities of XLCT within a reasonable time, yielding a 14 times faster scanning time compared with the oscilloscope based XLCT system. Now, the total scan time is reduced to 27 seconds per transverse section.