Keywords:
low dose HCT, longitudinal constraint, dictionary learning, distance driven, GPU implementation
Multi-slice helical Computed Tomography (HCT) has been widely applied in clinical applications. Due to the potential radiation risk, it has attracted an increasing attention to reduce radiation dose while maintaining the diagnostic performance. Inspired by the longitudinal sampling inconsistencies of helical CT scanning, in this paper, we develop a statistical iterative reconstruction algorithm based on three-dimensional dictionary learning to improve image quality for low-dose HCT. The longitudinal Total Variation (TV) is added to change the image noise distribution. The classical distance-driven projection and back-projection models are employed to avoid artifact-inducing. To enhance the computational performance, Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) implementation, Order Subset technology and Nesterov’s acceleration strategy are employed in our iterative reconstruction codes to accelerate the optimization. The Contrast Noise Ratio (CNR) index of reconstructed images and the subjective evaluation of medical practitioners all verify the superiority of our proposed algorithm.
- Yongyi Shi
- Institute of Image Processing and Pattern Recognition, Xi'an Jiaotong University, China
- Hengyong Yu
- University of Massachusetts Lowell, USA
- Yanbo Zhang
- University of Massachusetts Lowell, USA
- Rui Liu
- University of Massachusetts Lowell, USA
- Mannudeep Kalra
- Massachusetts General Hospital, USA
- Ge Wang
- Biomedical Imaging Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA
- Xuanqin Mou
- Institute of Image Processing and Pattern Recognition, Xi'an Jiaotong University, China
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