Spectral X-Ray CT Image Reconstruction with a Combination of Energy-Integrating and Photon-Counting Detectors

The purpose of this paper is to develop an algorithm for hybrid spectral computed tomography (CT) which combines energy-integrating and photon-counting detectors. While the energy-integrating scan is global, the photon-counting scan can have a local field of view (FOV). The algorithm synthesizes both spectral data and energy-integrating data. Low rank and sparsity prior is used for spectral CT reconstruction. An initial estimation is obtained from the projection data based on physical principles of x-ray interaction with the matter, which provides a more accurate Taylor expansion than previous work and can guarantee the convergence of the algorithm. Numerical simulation with clinical CT images are performed. The proposed algorithm produces very good spectral features outside the FOV when no K-edge material exists. Exterior reconstruction of K-edge material can be partially achieved.

[1]  A. Butler,et al.  First CT using Medipix3 and the MARS-CT-3 spectral scanner , 2011 .

[2]  Anthony P. H. Butler,et al.  Hybrid Spectral Micro-CT: System Design, Implementation, and Preliminary Results , 2014, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[3]  Sabee Molloi,et al.  Spectral CT imaging of vulnerable plaque with two independent biomarkers , 2012, Physics in medicine and biology.

[4]  Emmanuel J. Candès,et al.  A Singular Value Thresholding Algorithm for Matrix Completion , 2008, SIAM J. Optim..

[5]  Bingsheng He,et al.  The direct extension of ADMM for multi-block convex minimization problems is not necessarily convergent , 2014, Mathematical Programming.

[6]  Xiaoming Yuan,et al.  A Note on the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers , 2012, J. Optim. Theory Appl..

[7]  S. Weinberg.  The Quantum Theory of Fields: THE CLUSTER DECOMPOSITION PRINCIPLE , 1995 .

[8]  Ge Wang,et al.  Combination of current-integrating/photon-counting detector modules for spectral CT , 2013, Physics in medicine and biology.

[9]  Katsuyuki Taguchi,et al.  Enabling photon counting clinical X-ray CT , 2009, 2009 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record (NSS/MIC).

[10]  E. Frey,et al.  MicroCT with energy-resolved photon-counting detectors , 2011, Physics in medicine and biology.

[11]  A. Butler,et al.  Spectroscopic (multi-energy) CT distinguishes iodine and barium contrast material in MICE , 2010, European Radiology.

[12]  S. Wildermuth,et al.  Dual- and multi-energy CT: approach to functional imaging , 2011, Insights into imaging.

[13]  Hengyong Yu,et al.  Compressed sensing based interior tomography , 2009, Physics in medicine and biology.

[14]  Marc Teboulle,et al.  A Fast Iterative Shrinkage-Thresholding Algorithm for Linear Inverse Problems , 2009, SIAM J. Imaging Sci..

[15]  J. Schlomka,et al.  Multienergy photon-counting K-edge imaging: potential for improved luminal depiction in vascular imaging. , 2008, Radiology.

[16]  William R. Hendee,et al.  Radiation Physics for Medical Physicists , 2005 .

[17]  Taly Gilat Schmidt,et al.  Region-of-interest material decomposition from truncated energy-resolved CT. , 2011, Medical physics.

[18]  S. Molloi,et al.  Photon counting computed tomography: concept and initial results. , 2005, Medical physics.

[19]  Richard G. Baraniuk,et al.  Fast Alternating Direction Optimization Methods , 2014, SIAM J. Imaging Sci..

[20]  P. Shikhaliev.  Computed tomography with energy-resolved detection: a feasibility study , 2008, Physics in medicine and biology.

[21]  K. Taguchi,et al.  Vision 20/20: Single photon counting x-ray detectors in medical imaging. , 2013, Medical physics.

[22]  Eero P. Simoncelli,et al.  Image quality assessment: from error visibility to structural similarity , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing.

[23]  Stephen P. Boyd,et al.  Distributed Optimization and Statistical Learning via the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers , 2011, Found. Trends Mach. Learn..

[24]  Anthony P. H. Butler,et al.  Image Reconstruction for Hybrid True-Color Micro-CT , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[25]  Cheng Xu,et al.  Energy-resolved CT imaging with a photon-counting silicon-strip detector. , 2014, Physics in medicine and biology.

[26]  S. Osher,et al.  Multi-energy CT based on a prior rank, intensity and sparsity model (PRISM) , 2011, Inverse problems.

[27]  Rafidah Zainon,et al.  Toward quantifying the composition of soft tissues by spectral CT with Medipix3. , 2012, Medical physics.