A body of studies has proposed to obtain high-quality images from low-dose and noisy Computed Tomography (CT) scans for radiation reduction. However, these studies are designed for population-level data without considering the variation in CT devices and individuals, limiting the current approaches' performance, especially for ultra-low-dose CT imaging. Here, we proposed PIMA-CT, a physical anthropomorphic phantom model integrating an unsupervised learning framework, using a novel deep learning technique called Cyclic Simulation and Denoising (CSD), to address these limitations. We first acquired paired low-dose and standard-dose CT scans of the phantom and then developed two generative neural networks: noise simulator and denoiser. The simulator extracts real low-dose noise and tissue features from two separate image spaces (e.g., low-dose phantom model scans and standard-dose patient scans) into a unified feature space. Meanwhile, the denoiser provides feedback to the simulator on the quality of the generated noise. In this way, the simulator and denoiser cyclically interact to optimize network learning and ease the denoiser to simultaneously remove noise and restore tissue features. We thoroughly evaluate our method for removing both real low-dose noise and Gaussian simulated low-dose noise. The results show that CSD outperforms one of the state-of-the-art denoising algorithms without using anymore »
Generalizability test of a deep learning-based CT image denoising method
Deep learning (DL) has been increasingly explored in low-dose CT image denoising. DL products have also been submitted to the FDA for premarket clearance. While having the potential to improve image quality over the filtered back projection method (FBP) and produce images quickly, generalizability of DL approaches is a major concern because the performance of a DL network can depend highly on the training data. In this work we take a residual encoder-decoder convolutional neural network (REDCNN)-based CT denoising method as an example. We investigate the effect of the scan parameters associated with the training data on the performance of this DL-based CT denoising method and identifies the scan parameters that may significantly impact its performance generalizability. This abstract particularly examines these three parameters: reconstruction kernel, dose level and slice thickness. Our preliminary results indicate that the DL network may not generalize well between FBP reconstruction kernels, but is insensitive to slice thickness for slice-wise denoising. The results also suggest that training with mixed dose levels improves denoising performance.
- Award ID(s):
- 1838179
- Publication Date:
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10309183
- Journal Name:
- The 6th International Conference on Image Formation in X-Ray Computed Tomography
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
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