Noise reduction in tomograms

• US 10,282,872 B2
• Filed: 03/24/2015
• Issued: 05/07/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Healthineers AG (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Healthcare GMBH (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Dennerlein, Frank, Goldammer, Matthias, Schrapp, Michael, Schoerner, Karsten, Stephan, Juergen
• Primary Examiner(s): Sherali, Ishrat I
• Application Number:
  US15/303,071
• Publication Number:
  US 20170032547A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,505 Days
• Field of Search: 382128, 382131
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/005 Specific pre-processing for tomographic reconstruction, e.g. calibration, source positioning, rebinning, scatter correction, retrospective gating
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/008 Specific post-processing after tomographic reconstruction, e.g. voxelisation, metal artifact correction
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10081 Computed x-ray tomography [CT]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20012 Locally adaptive
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20192 Edge enhancement; Edge preservation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/20 using local operators
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/50 using two or more images, e.g. averaging or subtraction
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/70 Denoising; Smoothing

Abstract

A method is provided for reducing noise in a tomogram and/or volume rendering of at least one object. The noise can occur when scattered radiation artifacts are corrected. At least one tomogram that is affected by scattered radiation and at least one preliminary tomogram that has been corrected by a defined correction method are produced from a plurality of projection image datasets that are affected by scattered radiation. The noise emerging when scattered radiation artifacts are corrected may be reduced by selectively smoothening the noise using a filter based on an edge contour of the at least one object, which contour is rendered in the tomogram that is affected by scattered radiation.

Claims

1. A method for reducing noise in a tomogram and/or volume rendering of an object, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of projection image data records afflicted by stray radiation, based on the plurality of projection image data records afflicted by stray radiation, forming;

(a) at least one tomogram afflicted by stray radiation and having stray radiation artifacts, and

(b) at least one preliminary tomogram corrected with respect to stray radiation by a predetermined correction method,

using a filter to selectively smooth (a) noise in the at least one tomogram corrected in terms of stray radiation or (b) noise in an artifact map describing the stray radiation artifacts, based on an edge profile of the object imaged in the tomogram afflicted by stray radiation, and

smoothing the noise in the at least one tomogram corrected in terms of stray radiation in a region-specific manner by an adaptive filter in a manner dependent on the edge profile.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising generating a smoothing mask for adapting the filter, wherein the smoothing mask predetermines a degree of smoothing for a plurality of different voxels of the at least one tomogram corrected in terms of stray radiation.

3. The method of claim 2, comprising forming the smoothing mask from at least one of gradient values of each tomogram afflicted by stray radiation, or gradient values of each tomogram corrected in terms of stray radiation.

4. A method for reducing noise in a tomogram and/or volume rendering of an object, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of projection image data records afflicted by stray radiation, based on the plurality of projection image data records afflicted by stray radiation, forming;

(a) at least one tomogram afflicted by stray radiation and having stray radiation artifacts, and

(b) at least one preliminary tomogram corrected with respect to stray radiation by a predetermined correction method,

using a filter to selectively smooth (a) noise in the at least one tomogram corrected in terms of stray radiation or (b) noise in an artifact map describing the stray radiation artifacts, based on an edge profile of the object imaged in the tomogram afflicted by stray radiation, and

forming the artifact map based on the tomogram afflicted by radiation and the tomogram corrected in terms of stray radiation, and

smoothing the noise in the artifact map.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the artifact map is formed based on a difference between the tomogram afflicted by stray radiation and the tomogram corrected in terms of stray radiation, and

after the smoothing, a noise-reduced and stray-radiation-corrected new tomogram is formed by subtracting the filtered artifact map from the tomogram afflicted by stray radiation.

6. The method of claim 4, comprising forming the artifact map from the projection image data records of preceding measurements or from a data record that differs from the projection image data records.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the filter is a total variance filter.

8. The method of claim 4, comprising using a subtraction-based stray radiation correction, in which an estimated stray signal is subtracted from the projection image data records, as a correction method for forming the at least one tomogram corrected in terms of stray radiation.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein the tomogram corrected in terms of stray radiation is formed using an iterative reconstruction method based on the projection image data records, and smoothed in a plurality of iterations by the adaptive filter.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the iterative reconstruction method comprises an algebraic reconstruction algorithm (ART) method, a simultaneous algebraic reconstruction algorithm (SART) method, or a statistical method.

11. The method of claim 4, wherein the tomograms are gathered from a stray radiation afflicted and stray radiation corrected volume model of the object.

13. The method of claim 6, wherein the data record that differs from the projection image data records comprises a construction data record of a computed tomography scanner.

12. A computed tomography scanner, comprising:

a ray source configured to pass radiation through an object from different projection angles;

a ray detector configured to detect the rays and produce a plurality of projection image data records of the trans-illuminated object; and

an analysis device configured to form, based on the plurality of projection image data records detected by the ray detector;

(a) at least one tomogram afflicted by stray radiation and having stray radiation artifacts, and

(b) at least one preliminary tomogram corrected with respect to stray radiation by a predetermined correction method,

use a filter to selectively smooth (a) noise in the at least one tomogram corrected in terms of stray radiation or (b) noise in an artifact map describing the stray radiation artifacts, based on an edge profile of the object imaged in the tomogram afflicted by stray radiation,

forming the artifact map based on the tomogram afflicted by radiation and the tomogram corrected in terms of stray radiation, and

smoothing the noise in the artifact map.