A real-time, single-exposure, dual-energy subtraction mask for markerless tumor tracking in radiotherapy: Proof of concept

Introduction: Bone density can interfere with fluoroscopy-guided tumor tracking in radiotherapy. To improve markerless tumor tracking accuracy, we developed a dual energy subtraction (DES) mechanical image mask to use with a single x-ray exposure. Methods: The DES mask consists of 2-mm-thick stainless-steel with 128 pairs of slits (0.388 mm width and openings), designed to match the dynamic flat panel detector (DFPD) pixel size. This was set on the front of the DFPD. This results in a DFPD image with one containing the exposed pixels and one containing the masked pixels. The masked pixel columns were interpolated from adjacent pixels and a subtraction image was generated from the interpolated images to make a bone suppression (BS) image. A chest phantom was set on the commercially available moving table (CIRS DYNAMIC PLATFORM 008PL) and DFPD images were acquired. A reference BS image was generated by double-exposure DES with and without a 2-mm-thick stainless-steel plate. Image quality and markerless tumor tracking accuracy were then evaluated. Results: The DES mask decreased most of the visible bone densities from the chest phantom image acquired with a single exposure for a peak-signal-to-noise-ratio/structural similarity index measure (PSNR/SSIM) of 25.3 db/ 0.685). The tracking positional error, originally 12.6 mm, was improved to 0.2 mm. Conclusions: The DES mask can aid in BS image on fluoroscopic imaging and may be useful in markerless tumor tracking.