SU‐D‐206‐03: Segmentation Assisted Fast Iterative Reconstruction Method for Cone‐Beam CT

Abstract

Purpose:Total Variation (TV) based iterative reconstruction (IR) methods enable accurate CT image reconstruction from low‐dose measurements with sparse projection acquisition, due to the sparsifiable feature of most CT images using gradient operator. However, conventional solutions require large amount of iterations to generate a decent reconstructed image. One major reason is that the expected piecewise constant property is not taken into consideration at the optimization starting point. In this work, we propose an iterative reconstruction method for cone‐beam CT (CBCT) using image segmentation to guide the optimization path more efficiently on the regularization term at the beginning of the optimization trajectory.Methods:Our method applies general knowledge that one tissue component in the CT image contains relatively uniform distribution of CT number. This general knowledge is incorporated into the proposed reconstruction using image segmentation technique to generate the piecewise constant template on the first‐pass low‐quality CT image reconstructed using analytical algorithm. The template image is applied as an initial value into the optimization process.Results:The proposed method is evaluated on the Shepp‐Logan phantom of low and high noise levels, and a head patient. The number of iterations is reduced by overall 40%. Moreover, our proposed method tends to generate a smoother reconstructed image with the same TV value.Conclusion:We propose a computationally efficient iterative reconstruction method for CBCT imaging. Our method achieves a better optimization trajectory and a faster convergence behavior. It does not rely on prior information and can be readily incorporated into existing iterative reconstruction framework. Our method is thus practical and attractive as a general solution to CBCT iterative reconstruction.This work is supported by the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. LR16F010001), National High‐tech R&D Program for Young Scientists by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Grant No. 2015AA020917).