Method and system for correlated noise suppression in dual energy imaging
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- acquiring a first set of projection data corresponding to X-rays generated at a first energy level and a second set of projection data corresponding to X-rays generated at a second energy level;
decomposing the first set and the second set of projection data into a first set of material projection data corresponding to a first basis material and a second set of material projection data corresponding to a second basis material;
reconstructing a first materially decomposed (MD) image of the first basis material using the first set of material projection data and a second MD image of the second basis material using the second set of material projection data;
estimating a direction of correlation between noise values corresponding to the first MD image and noise values corresponding to the second MD image;
diffusing the first MD image and the second MD image to generate a first diffused image and a second diffused image based on the estimated direction of correlation;
generating a first noise mask by subtracting the first diffused image from the first MD image and generating a second noise mask by subtracting the second diffused image from the second MD image;
processing one or more edges corresponding to the first MD image with the first noise mask to generate a final first noise mask, and processing one or more edges corresponding to the second MD image with the second noise mask to generate a final second noise mask; and
processing the first MD image with the final second noise mask to generate a final first MD image and processing the second MD image with the final first noise mask to generate a final second MD image.
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Abstract
Methods and systems for correlated noise suppression are presented. The present correlated noise suppression technique estimates a correlation direction between noise values in a first and a second MD image corresponding to a first and a second basis material, respectively. The two MD images are diffused using the estimated correlation direction to generate a first and a second diffused image. Further, first and second noise masks are generated by subtracting the diffused image from the corresponding MD image. Edges in the first and the second MD images are processed with the first and second noise masks, respectively to generate a final first noise mask and a final second noise mask. The first MD image is then processed with the final second noise mask to generate a final first MD image and the second MD image is processed with the final first noise mask to generate a final second MD image.
25 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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acquiring a first set of projection data corresponding to X-rays generated at a first energy level and a second set of projection data corresponding to X-rays generated at a second energy level; decomposing the first set and the second set of projection data into a first set of material projection data corresponding to a first basis material and a second set of material projection data corresponding to a second basis material; reconstructing a first materially decomposed (MD) image of the first basis material using the first set of material projection data and a second MD image of the second basis material using the second set of material projection data; estimating a direction of correlation between noise values corresponding to the first MD image and noise values corresponding to the second MD image; diffusing the first MD image and the second MD image to generate a first diffused image and a second diffused image based on the estimated direction of correlation; generating a first noise mask by subtracting the first diffused image from the first MD image and generating a second noise mask by subtracting the second diffused image from the second MD image; processing one or more edges corresponding to the first MD image with the first noise mask to generate a final first noise mask, and processing one or more edges corresponding to the second MD image with the second noise mask to generate a final second noise mask; and processing the first MD image with the final second noise mask to generate a final first MD image and processing the second MD image with the final first noise mask to generate a final second MD image. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. An imaging system, comprising:
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a data acquisition system that acquires a first set of projection data corresponding to X-rays generated at a first energy level and a second set of projection data corresponding to X-rays generated at a second energy level; and an image reconstruction unit communicatively coupled to the data acquisition system, wherein the image reconstruction unit; decomposes the first set and the second set of projection data into a first set of material projection data corresponding to a first basis material and a second set of material projection data corresponding to a second basis material; reconstructs a first MD image of the first basis material using the first set of material projection data and a second MD image of the second basis material using the second set of material projection data; estimates a direction of correlation between noise values corresponding to the first MD image and noise values corresponding to the second MD image; diffuses the first MD image and the second MD image to generate a first diffused image and a second diffused image based on the estimated direction of correlation; generates a first noise mask by subtracting the first diffused image from the first MD image and generates a second noise mask by subtracting the second diffused image from the second MD image; processes one or more edges corresponding to the first MD image with the first noise mask to generate a final first noise mask, and processes one or more edges corresponding to the second MD image with the second noise mask to generate a final second noise mask; and processes the first MD image with the final second noise mask to generate a final first MD image and processes the second MD image with the final first noise mask to generate a final second MD image. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A computed tomography (CT) system, comprising:
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at least one radiation source that generates X-rays at a first energy level and at a second energy level; a detector assembly coupled to the at least one radiation source that detects the X-rays generated from the radiation source; an image reconstruction unit coupled to the detector assembly, wherein the image reconstruction unit; acquires a first set of projection data corresponding to X-rays generated at the first energy level and a second set of projection data corresponding to X-rays generated at the second energy level; decomposes the first set and the second set of projection data into a first set of material projection data corresponding to a first basis material and a second set of material projection data corresponding to a second basis material; reconstructs a first MD image of the first basis material using the first set of material projection data and a second MD image of a second basis material using the second set of material projection data; estimates a direction of correlation between noise values corresponding to the first MD image and noise values corresponding to the second MD image; diffuses the first MD image and the second MD image to generate a first diffused image and a second diffused image based on the estimated direction of correlation; generates a first noise mask by subtracting the first diffused image from the first MD image and generates a second noise mask by subtracting the second diffused image from the second MD image; processes one or more edges corresponding to the first MD image with the first noise mask to generate a final first noise mask, and processes one or more edges corresponding to the second MD image with the second noise mask to generate a final second noise mask; and processes the first MD image with the final second noise mask to generate a final first MD image and processes the second MD image with the final first noise mask to generate a final second MD image.
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Specification