Beam hardening correction for sparse-view CT reconstruction

Abstract

Beam hardening, which is caused by spectrum polychromatism of the X-ray beam, may result in various artifacts in the reconstructed image and degrade image quality. The artifacts would be further aggravated for the sparse-view reconstruction due to insufficient sampling data. Considering the advantages of the total-variation (TV) minimization in CT reconstruction with sparse-view data, in this paper, we propose a beam hardening correction method for sparse-view CT reconstruction based on Brabant’s modeling. In this correction model for beam hardening, the attenuation coefficient of each voxel at the effective energy is modeled and estimated linearly, and can be applied in an iterative framework, such as simultaneous algebraic reconstruction technique (SART). By integrating the correction model into the forward projector of the algebraic reconstruction technique (ART), the TV minimization can recover images when only a limited number of projections are available. The proposed method does not need prior information about the beam spectrum. Preliminary validation using Monte Carlo simulations indicates that the proposed method can provide better reconstructed images from sparse-view projection data, with effective suppression of artifacts caused by beam hardening. With appropriate modeling of other degrading effects such as photon scattering, the proposed framework may provide a new way for low-dose CT imaging.