Abstract
Purpose: Noise reduction in material density images is a necessary preprocessing step for the correct interpretation of dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) images. In this paper we describe a new method based on a local adaptive processing to reduce noise in DECT images Methods: An adaptive neighborhood Wiener (ANW) filter was implemented and customized to use local characteristics of material density images. The ANW filter employs a three-level wavelet approach, combined with the application of an anisotropic diffusion filter. Material density images and virtual monochromatic images are noise corrected with two resulting noise maps. Results: The algorithm was applied and quantitatively evaluated in a set of 36 images. From that set of images, three are shown here, and nine more are shown in the online supplementary material. Processed images had higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) than the raw material density images. The average improvements in SNR and CNR for the material density images were 56.5 and 54.75 %, respectively. Conclusion: We developed a new DECT noise reduction algorithm. We demonstrate throughout a series of quantitative analyses that the algorithm improves the quality of material density images and virtual monochromatic images.
Original language | English (US) |
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Journal | International journal of computer assisted radiology and surgery |
DOIs | |
State | Accepted/In press - Oct 13 2015 |
Keywords
- Adaptive Wiener filter
- Dual-energy computed tomography
- Material density
- Noise reduction
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging
- Health Informatics
- Surgery