NOISE SUPPRESSION FOR CONE-BEAM IMAGE RECONSTRUCTION

• US 20120019512A1
• Filed: 07/22/2010
• Published: 01/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/22/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: CareStream Health Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CareStream Health Incorporated
• Inventors: Yang, Dong, Senn, Robert A., Yorkston, John, Foos, David H., Packard, Nathan J.
• Application Number:
  US12/841,363
• Publication Number:
  US 20120019512A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/419
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/005 Specific pre-processing for tomographic reconstruction, e.g. calibration, source positioning, rebinning, scatter correction, retrospective gating

Abstract

A method for 3-D volume image reconstruction of a subject, executed at least in part on a computer, obtains image data for 2-D projection images over a range of scan angles. For each of the plurality of projection images, a noise-corrected projection image is generated by steps of transforming the image data according to a variance-stabilizing transform to provide transformed image data, applying Gaussian based noise suppression to the transformed image data, and inverting the transformation of the noise-suppressed transformed image data to generate the noise-corrected projection image. The noise-corrected projection image is stored in a computer-accessible memory.

Claims

1. A method for 3-D volume image reconstruction of a subject, executed at least in part on a computer, comprising:

obtaining image data for a plurality of 2-D projection images over a range of scan angles;

generating, for each of the plurality of projection images, a noise-corrected projection image by;

(i) transforming the image data according to a variance-stabilizing transform to provide transformed image data;

(ii) applying Gaussian-based noise suppression to the transformed image data; and

(iii) inverting the transformation of the noise-suppressed transformed image data to generate the noise-corrected projection image; and

storing the noise-corrected projection image in a computer-accessible memory.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising processing the plurality of noise-corrected projection images to reconstruct the 3-D volume image of the subject.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising displaying the reconstructed 3-D volume image.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising storing the reconstructed 3-D volume image in the computer-accessible memory.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein transforming the image data according to a variance-stabilizing transform comprises applying an Anscombe transform.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein processing the plurality of noise-corrected projection images comprises performing a row-wise ramp linear filtering to the projection image data without regularization of the noise suppression window.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining image data for a plurality of 2-D projection images comprises obtaining image data from a cone-beam computerized tomography apparatus.

8. A method for 3-D volume image reconstruction of a subject, executed at least in part on a computer, comprising:

obtaining cone-beam computed tomography image data for a plurality of 2-D projection images over a range of scan angles;

generating, for each of the plurality of projection images, a noise-corrected projection image by;

(i) transforming the image data according to a variance-stabilizing transform to provide transformed image data;

(ii) applying Gaussian based noise suppression to the transformed image data; and

(iii) inverting the transformation of the noise-suppressed transformed image data to generate the noise-corrected projection image;

processing the plurality of noise-corrected projection images to reconstruct the 3-D volume image of the subject; and

displaying the reconstructed 3-D volume image.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising storing the reconstructed 3-D volume image in a computer-accessible memory.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein transforming the image data according to a variance-stabilizing transform comprises applying an Anscombe transform.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein processing the plurality of noise-corrected projection images comprises performing a row-wise ramp linear filtering to the projection image data without regularization of the noise suppression window.

12. The method of claim 8 further comprising performing one or more of geometric correction, scatter correction, beam-hardening correction, and gain and offset correction on the obtained image data.