An edge-preserving total nuclear variation minimization algorithm in EPR image reconstruction

Abstract

ObjectiveCurrently, slow scanning speed has become a technical bottleneck limiting the development of electron paramagnetic resonance imaging (EPRI), a novel oxygen imaging modality. Image reconstruction from sparse-view projections is an important imaging configuration to achieve fast scanning in EPRI. However, EPR images reconstructed from sparse-view projections using traditional analytic algorithms suffer from sparse artifacts, causing severe image degradation. In this work, we aim to use an optimization-based approach to achieve high-precision sparse reconstruction for EPRI. Methods. Inspired by the success of total nuclear variation (TVN) for denoising multi-channel spectral CT images and adaptive-weighted total variation (awTV) for improving the edge-preserving performance of TV, we proposed an edge-preserving total nuclear variation (EPTVN) minimization algorithm for sparse reconstruction in EPRI. The EPTVN combines the advantage of TVN in modelling structural similarity and low-rank prior between multi-channel images for denoising with the advantage of awTV for edge-preserving, which can better protect the edge structure of images while suppressing sparse artifacts. Results. We designed two numerical phantoms with different properties, a piecewise-constant phantom and a gradient phantom, and a physical phantom, and then performed inverse crime, simulation study and real-data study. Experimental results show that the EPTVN minimization algorithm can reconstruct more accurate EPR images from sparse-view projections for both the numerical and physical phantoms. Significance. The proposed method can effectively suppress sparse artifacts and protect edge structures of reconstructed images, thus achieving high-precision sparse-view reconstruction for EPRI. The insights of this work can also be applied to multi-channel image denoising tasks.