Improving low-dose abdominal CT images by Weighted Intensity Averaging over Large-scale Neighborhoods |
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Authors: | Yang ChenAuthor Vitae Wufan ChenAuthor Vitae Xindao YinAuthor VitaeXianghua YeAuthor Vitae Xudong BaoAuthor VitaeLimin LuoAuthor Vitae Qianjing FengAuthor VitaeYinsheng li Xiaoe Yu |
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Institution: | a The Laboratory of Image Science and Technology, Southeast University, China b The School of Biomedical Engineering, Southern Medical University, China c The Department of Radiology, Nanjing First Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, China d The Department of Radiotherapy, First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, China |
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Abstract: | PurposeThough highly desirable in radiologic procedures, low-dose CT (LDCT) images tend to be severely degraded by quantum noise and non-stationary artifacts. The purpose of this paper is to improve the abdominal LDCT images by the approach of Weighted Intensity Averaging over Large-scale Neighborhoods (WIA-LN).Materials and methodsIn the implementation of the proposed WIA-LN method, the processed pixel intensities are adaptively calculated as the weighted intensity averaging of the pixels with similar surrounding structures throughout a large-scale neighborhood. Both phantom and clinical abdominal CT images from a 16 detector rows Siemens CT were acquired at standard and 80% reduced tube current time products (150 mA s and 30 mA s corresponding to standard-dose and low-dose protocols, respectively). Visual comparison, statistical qualitative analysis (image quality scores and hepatic cyst diagnosis), and quantitative calculation (noise and contrast-to-noise ratio) are made.ResultsBetter vision and quantitative performance are realized using the proposed WIA-LN method. Compared to original LDCT and standard-dose CT (SDCT) images, statistically significant improvement of noise/artifacts suppression, contrast preservation and hepatic cyst detection in LDCT images are achieved by using the proposed method (P < 0.05).ConclusionWith the tube current reduced to approximate one-fifth of the standard tube current setting, clinically acceptable images can still be obtained by using the proposed method. |
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Keywords: | Abdominal low-dose CT (LDCT) Abdominal standard-dose CT (SDCT) Weighted Intensity Averaging over Large-scale Neighborhoods (WIA-LN) Artifacts Contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) |
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