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A pitfall of using the circular‐edge technique with image averaging for spatial resolution measurement in iteratively reconstructed CT images

The circular‐edge technique using a low‐contrast cylindrical object is commonly used to measure the modulation transfer functions (MTFs) in computed tomography (CT) images reconstructed with iterative reconstruction (IR) algorithms. This method generally entails averaging multiple images of the cyli...

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Autores principales: Narita, Akihiro, Ohkubo, Masaki
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7020989/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31957969
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/acm2.12821
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author Narita, Akihiro
Ohkubo, Masaki
author_facet Narita, Akihiro
Ohkubo, Masaki
author_sort Narita, Akihiro
collection PubMed
description The circular‐edge technique using a low‐contrast cylindrical object is commonly used to measure the modulation transfer functions (MTFs) in computed tomography (CT) images reconstructed with iterative reconstruction (IR) algorithms. This method generally entails averaging multiple images of the cylinder to reduce the image noise. We suspected that the cylinder edge shape depicted in the IR images might exhibit slight deformation with respect to the true shape because of the intrinsic nonlinearity of IR algorithms. Image averaging can reduce the image noise, but does not effectively improve the deformation of the edge shape; thereby causing errors in the MTF measurements. We address this issue and propose a method to correct the MTF. We scanned a phantom including cylindrical objects with a CT scanner (Ingenuity Elite, Philips Healthcare). We obtained cylinder images with iterative model reconstruction (IMR) algorithms. The images suggested that the depicted edge shape deforms and fluctuates depending on slice positions. Because of this deformation, image averaging can potentially cause additional blurring. We define the deformation function D that describes the additional blurring, and obtain D by analyzing multiple images. The MTF measured by the circular‐edge method (referred to as MTF') can be thought of as the multiplication of the true MTF by the Fourier transformation (FT) of D. We thus obtain the corrected MTF (MTF(corrected)) by dividing MTF' by the FT of D. We validate our correction method by comparing the calculated images based on the convolution theorem using MTF' and MTF(corrected) with the actual images obtained with the scanner. The calculated image using MTF(corrected) is more similar to the actual image compared with the image calculated using MTF', particularly in edge regions. We describe a pitfall in MTF measurement using the circular‐edge technique with image averaging, and suggest a method to correct it.
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spelling pubmed-70209892020-03-06 A pitfall of using the circular‐edge technique with image averaging for spatial resolution measurement in iteratively reconstructed CT images Narita, Akihiro Ohkubo, Masaki J Appl Clin Med Phys Medical Imaging The circular‐edge technique using a low‐contrast cylindrical object is commonly used to measure the modulation transfer functions (MTFs) in computed tomography (CT) images reconstructed with iterative reconstruction (IR) algorithms. This method generally entails averaging multiple images of the cylinder to reduce the image noise. We suspected that the cylinder edge shape depicted in the IR images might exhibit slight deformation with respect to the true shape because of the intrinsic nonlinearity of IR algorithms. Image averaging can reduce the image noise, but does not effectively improve the deformation of the edge shape; thereby causing errors in the MTF measurements. We address this issue and propose a method to correct the MTF. We scanned a phantom including cylindrical objects with a CT scanner (Ingenuity Elite, Philips Healthcare). We obtained cylinder images with iterative model reconstruction (IMR) algorithms. The images suggested that the depicted edge shape deforms and fluctuates depending on slice positions. Because of this deformation, image averaging can potentially cause additional blurring. We define the deformation function D that describes the additional blurring, and obtain D by analyzing multiple images. The MTF measured by the circular‐edge method (referred to as MTF') can be thought of as the multiplication of the true MTF by the Fourier transformation (FT) of D. We thus obtain the corrected MTF (MTF(corrected)) by dividing MTF' by the FT of D. We validate our correction method by comparing the calculated images based on the convolution theorem using MTF' and MTF(corrected) with the actual images obtained with the scanner. The calculated image using MTF(corrected) is more similar to the actual image compared with the image calculated using MTF', particularly in edge regions. We describe a pitfall in MTF measurement using the circular‐edge technique with image averaging, and suggest a method to correct it. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2020-01-20 /pmc/articles/PMC7020989/ /pubmed/31957969 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/acm2.12821 Text en © 2020 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
Narita, Akihiro
Ohkubo, Masaki
A pitfall of using the circular‐edge technique with image averaging for spatial resolution measurement in iteratively reconstructed CT images
title A pitfall of using the circular‐edge technique with image averaging for spatial resolution measurement in iteratively reconstructed CT images
title_full A pitfall of using the circular‐edge technique with image averaging for spatial resolution measurement in iteratively reconstructed CT images
title_fullStr A pitfall of using the circular‐edge technique with image averaging for spatial resolution measurement in iteratively reconstructed CT images
title_full_unstemmed A pitfall of using the circular‐edge technique with image averaging for spatial resolution measurement in iteratively reconstructed CT images
title_short A pitfall of using the circular‐edge technique with image averaging for spatial resolution measurement in iteratively reconstructed CT images
title_sort pitfall of using the circular‐edge technique with image averaging for spatial resolution measurement in iteratively reconstructed ct images
topic Medical Imaging
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7020989/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31957969
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/acm2.12821
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