Patent ID: 7903781

Claim:
A system for determining a distribution of heavy particle stopping power of a patient, the system comprising: a broadband source of dual-energy x-rays, the broadband source configured to: produce a beam of broadband x-ray radiation, the broadband beam including energy having a first energy spectrum and a first peak energy and energy having a second energy spectrum and a second peak energy, and irradiate a three-dimensional space within a patient with the beam of broadband x-ray radiation; a detector system comprising a sensor configured to: sense radiation from the three-dimensional space, the sensed radiation including radiation caused by irradiating the three-dimensional space with the broadband source, and produce a representation of the sensed radiation; and a processor operable to: receive the representation of the sensed radiation, determine a distribution of effective atomic number of the three-dimensional space based on the representation from the detector system, determine a distribution of an x-ray stopping power of the three-dimensional space based on the representation from the detector system, the x-ray stopping power of the three-dimensional space being an indication of a depth of penetration of an x-ray incident on the three-dimensional space, apply a conversion to the distribution of the x-ray stopping power and the distribution of the effective atomic number, and generate a distribution of a heavy particle stopping power of the three-dimensional space based on the conversion, the heavy particle stopping power being used to indicate a depth of penetration for a heavy particle incident on the three-dimensional space.