Deep learning methods for blood flow reconstruction in a vessel with contrast enhanced x-ray computed tomography.

Abstract

The reconstruction of blood velocity in a vessel from contrast enhanced x-ray computed tomography projections is a complex inverse problem. It can be formulated as reconstruction problem with a partial differential equation constraint. A solution can be estimated with the a variational adjoint method and proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) basis. In this work, we investigate new inversion approaches based on PODs coupled with deep learning methods. The effectiveness of the reconstruction methods is shown with simulated realistic stationary blood flows in a vessel. The methods outperform the reduced adjoint method and show large speed-up at the online stage.