A pseudo-discrete algebraic reconstruction technique (PDART) prior image-based suppression of high density artifacts in computed tomography

• Published in: Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment, 2016-12, Vol.840, p.42-50
• Main Authors: Pua, Rizza, Park, Miran, Wi, Sunhee, Cho, Seungryong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Computed tomography; Image reconstruction; Metal artifact reduction
• ISSN: 0168-9002; 1872-9576
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2016.09.059

We propose a hybrid metal artifact reduction (MAR) approach for computed tomography (CT) that is computationally more efficient than a fully iterative reconstruction method, but at the same time achieves superior image quality to the interpolation-based in-painting techniques. Our proposed MAR method, an image-based artifact subtraction approach, utilizes an intermediate prior image reconstructed via PDART to recover the background information underlying the high density objects. For comparison, prior images generated by total-variation minimization (TVM) algorithm, as a realization of fully iterative approach, were also utilized as intermediate images. From the simulation and real experimental results, it has been shown that PDART drastically accelerates the reconstruction to an acceptable quality of prior images. Incorporating PDART-reconstructed prior images in the proposed MAR scheme achieved higher quality images than those by a conventional in-painting method. Furthermore, the results were comparable to the fully iterative MAR that uses high-quality TVM prior images. •An accelerated reconstruction method, PDART, is proposed for exterior problems.•With a few iterations, soft prior image was reconstructed from the exterior data.•PDART framework has enabled an efficient hybrid metal artifact reduction in CT.