Computed tomography simulation with superquadrics

Med Phys. 2005 Oct;32(10):3136-43. doi: 10.1118/1.2040727.

Abstract

Accurate and efficient simulation of an x-ray transform for representative structures plays an important role in research and development of x-ray CT, for the evaluation and improvement of CT image reconstruction algorithms, in particular. Superquadrics are a family of three-dimensional objects, which can be used to model a variety of anatomical structures. In this paper, we propose an algorithm for the computation of x-ray transforms for superellipsoids and tori with a monochromatic x-ray. Their usefulness is demonstrated by projection and reconstruction of a superquadric-based thorax phantom. Our work indicates that superquadric modeling provides a more realistic visualization than quadratic modeling, and a faster computation than spline methods.

Publication types

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

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Computer Simulation
  • Imaging, Three-Dimensional / methods*
  • Models, Biological*
  • Radiographic Image Enhancement / methods
  • Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Tomography, X-Ray Computed / methods*