Iterative reconstruction for x-ray computed tomography using prior-image induced nonlocal regularization

IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2014 Sep;61(9):2367-2378. doi: 10.1109/TBME.2013.2287244. Epub 2013 Oct 24.

Abstract

Repeated X-ray computed tomography (CT) scans are often required in several specific applications such as perfusion imaging, image-guided biopsy needle, image-guided intervention, and radiotherapy with noticeable benefits. However, the associated cumulative radiation dose significantly increases as comparison with that used in the conventional CT scan, which has raised major concerns in patients. In this study, to realize radiation dose reduction by reducing the X-ray tube current and exposure time (mAs) in repeated CT scans, we propose a prior-image induced nonlocal (PINL) regularization for statistical iterative reconstruction via the penalized weighted least-squares (PWLS) criteria, which we refer to as "PWLS-PINL". Specifically, the PINL regularization utilizes the redundant information in the prior image and the weighted least-squares term considers a data-dependent variance estimation, aiming to improve current low-dose image quality. Subsequently, a modified iterative successive overrelaxation algorithm is adopted to optimize the associative objective function. Experimental results on both phantom and patient data show that the present PWLS-PINL method can achieve promising gains over the other existing methods in terms of the noise reduction, low-contrast object detection, and edge detail preservation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Humans
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Least-Squares Analysis
  • Phantoms, Imaging
  • Radiation Dosage
  • Tomography, X-Ray Computed / methods*
  • Torso / diagnostic imaging