Sparse-View Computed Tomography Reconstruction Based on a Novel Improved Prior Image Constrained Compressed Sensing Algorithm

Abstract

The problem of sparse-view computed tomography (SVCT) reconstruction has become a popular research issue because of its significant capacity for radiation dose reduction. However, the reconstructed images often contain serious artifacts and noise from under-sampled projection data. Although the good results achieved by the prior image constrained compressed sensing (PICCS) method, there may be some unsatisfactory results in the reconstructed images because of the image gradient L1-norm used in the original PICCS model, which leads to the image suffering from step artifacts and over-smoothing of the edge as a result. To address the above-mentioned problem, this paper proposes a novel improved PICCS algorithm (NPICCS) for SVCT reconstruction. The proposed algorithm utilizes the advantages of PICCS, which could recover more details. Moreover, the algorithm introduces the L0-norm of image gradient regularization into the framework, which overcomes the disadvantage of conventional PICCS, and enhances the capability to retain edge and fine image detail. The split Bregman method has been used to resolve the proposed mathematical model. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, a large number of experiments with different angles are conducted. Final experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has advantages in edge preservation, noise suppression, and image detail recovery.