Anisotropic total variation minimization approach in in-line phase-contrast tomography and its application to correction of ring artifacts

In-line phase-contrast computed tomography(IL-PC-CT) imaging is a new physical and biochemical imaging method.IL-PC-CT has advantages compared to absorption CT when imaging soft tissues. In practical applications, ring artifacts which will reduce the image quality are commonly encountered in IL-PC-CT, and numerous correction methods exist to either pre-process the sinogram or post-process the reconstructed image. In this study, we develop an IL-PC-CT reconstruction method based on anisotropic total variation(TV) minimization. Using this method, the ring artifacts are corrected during the reconstruction process. This method is compared with two methods: a sinogram preprocessing correction technique based on wavelet-FFT filter and a reconstruction method based on isotropic TV. The correction results show that the proposed method can reduce visible ring artifacts while preserving the liver section details for real liver section synchrotron data.     

PET image reconstruction with a system matrix containing point spread function derived from single photon incidence response

A point spread function(PSF)for the blurring component in positron emission tomography(PET)is studied.The PSF matrix is derived from the single photon incidence response function.A statistical iterative reconstruction(IR)method based on the system matrix containing the PSF is developed.More specifically,the gamma photon incidence upon a crystal array is simulated by Monte Carlo(MC)simulation,and then the single photon incidence response functions are calculated.Subsequently,the single photon incidence response functions are used to compute the coincidence blurring factor according to the physical process of PET coincidence detection.Through weighting the ordinary system matrix response by the coincidence blurring factors,the IR system matrix containing the PSF is finally established.By using this system matrix,the image is reconstructed by an ordered subset expectation maximization(OSEM)algorithm.The experimental results show that the proposed system matrix can substantially improve the image radial resolution,contrast,and noise property.Furthermore,the simulated single gamma-ray incidence response function depends only on the crystal configuration,so the method could be extended to any PET scanner with the same detector crystal configuration.