Imaging methods in the transmission computed tomographic measurement of regional xenon kinetics in the brain

The process of an investigation of transmission computed tomographic measurements of the kinetics of stable xenon in the brain is reported. The use of functional imaging methods to generate maps of regional washout rate estimators is introduced in an animal model. Region-of-interest analysis is introduced using regions specified by the functional maps demonstrates the sensitivity of the methods to the rapid components of cerebral xenon washout. Correspondence among the regional distributions of tissue types as demonstrated by tissue attenuation coefficient, xenon solubility, and washout rate estimators supports the validity of characterizing each pixel by a single exponential response function.