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Noise reduction in dual‐energy computed tomography virtual monoenergetic imaging

PURPOSE: Virtual monoenergetic images (VMIs) derived from dual‐energy computed tomography (DECT) have been explored for several clinical applications in recent years. However, VMIs at low and high keVs have high levels of noise. The aim of this study was to reduce image noise in VMIs by using a two‐...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Liu, Chi‐Kuang, Huang, Hsuan‐Ming
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6753738/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31390137
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/acm2.12694
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author Liu, Chi‐Kuang
Huang, Hsuan‐Ming
author_facet Liu, Chi‐Kuang
Huang, Hsuan‐Ming
author_sort Liu, Chi‐Kuang
collection PubMed
description PURPOSE: Virtual monoenergetic images (VMIs) derived from dual‐energy computed tomography (DECT) have been explored for several clinical applications in recent years. However, VMIs at low and high keVs have high levels of noise. The aim of this study was to reduce image noise in VMIs by using a two‐step noise reduction technique. METHODS: VMI was first denoised using a modified highly constrained backprojection (HYPR) method. After the first‐step denoising, a general‐threshold filtering method was performed. Two sets of anthropomorphic phantoms were scanned with a clinical dual‐source DECT system. DECT data (80/140Sn kV) were reconstructed as VMI series at 12 different energy levels (range, 40‐150 keV, interval, 10 keV). For comparison, the averaged VMIs obtained from 10 repeated DECT scans were used as the reference standard. The signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR), contrast‐to‐noise ratio (CNR) and root‐mean‐square error (RMSE) were used to evaluate the quality of VMIs. RESULTS: Compared to the original HYPR method, the proposed two‐step image denoising method could provide better performance in terms of SNR, CNR, and RMSE. In addition, the proposed method could achieve effective noise reduction while preserving edges and small structures, especially for low‐keV VMIs. CONCLUSION: The proposed two‐step image denoising method is a feasible method for reducing noise in VMIs obtained from a clinical DECT scanner. The proposed method can also reduce edge blurring and the loss of intensity in small lesions.
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spelling pubmed-67537382019-09-23 Noise reduction in dual‐energy computed tomography virtual monoenergetic imaging Liu, Chi‐Kuang Huang, Hsuan‐Ming J Appl Clin Med Phys Medical Imaging PURPOSE: Virtual monoenergetic images (VMIs) derived from dual‐energy computed tomography (DECT) have been explored for several clinical applications in recent years. However, VMIs at low and high keVs have high levels of noise. The aim of this study was to reduce image noise in VMIs by using a two‐step noise reduction technique. METHODS: VMI was first denoised using a modified highly constrained backprojection (HYPR) method. After the first‐step denoising, a general‐threshold filtering method was performed. Two sets of anthropomorphic phantoms were scanned with a clinical dual‐source DECT system. DECT data (80/140Sn kV) were reconstructed as VMI series at 12 different energy levels (range, 40‐150 keV, interval, 10 keV). For comparison, the averaged VMIs obtained from 10 repeated DECT scans were used as the reference standard. The signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR), contrast‐to‐noise ratio (CNR) and root‐mean‐square error (RMSE) were used to evaluate the quality of VMIs. RESULTS: Compared to the original HYPR method, the proposed two‐step image denoising method could provide better performance in terms of SNR, CNR, and RMSE. In addition, the proposed method could achieve effective noise reduction while preserving edges and small structures, especially for low‐keV VMIs. CONCLUSION: The proposed two‐step image denoising method is a feasible method for reducing noise in VMIs obtained from a clinical DECT scanner. The proposed method can also reduce edge blurring and the loss of intensity in small lesions. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2019-08-07 /pmc/articles/PMC6753738/ /pubmed/31390137 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/acm2.12694 Text en © 2019 The Authors. Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American Association of Physicists in Medicine. This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Medical Imaging
Liu, Chi‐Kuang
Huang, Hsuan‐Ming
Noise reduction in dual‐energy computed tomography virtual monoenergetic imaging
title Noise reduction in dual‐energy computed tomography virtual monoenergetic imaging
title_full Noise reduction in dual‐energy computed tomography virtual monoenergetic imaging
title_fullStr Noise reduction in dual‐energy computed tomography virtual monoenergetic imaging
title_full_unstemmed Noise reduction in dual‐energy computed tomography virtual monoenergetic imaging
title_short Noise reduction in dual‐energy computed tomography virtual monoenergetic imaging
title_sort noise reduction in dual‐energy computed tomography virtual monoenergetic imaging
topic Medical Imaging
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6753738/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31390137
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/acm2.12694
work_keys_str_mv AT liuchikuang noisereductionindualenergycomputedtomographyvirtualmonoenergeticimaging
AT huanghsuanming noisereductionindualenergycomputedtomographyvirtualmonoenergeticimaging