TY - GEN
T1 - Comparative study of two image space noise reduction methods for computed tomography
T2 - 31st Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society: Engineering the Future of Biomedicine, EMBC 2009
AU - Ramirez Giraldo, Juan C.
AU - Kelm, Zachary S.
AU - Guimaraes, Luis S.
AU - Yu, Lifeng
AU - Fletcher, Joel G.
AU - Erickson, Bradley J.
AU - McCollough, Cynthia H.
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - Optimal noise control is important for improving image quality and reducing radiation dose in computed tomography. Here we investigated two image space based nonlinear filters for noise reduction: the bilateral filter (BF) and the nonlocal means (NLM) algorithm. Images from both methods were compared against those from a commercially available weighted filtered backprojection (WFBP) method. A standard phantom for quality assurance testing was used to quantitatively compare noise and spatial resolution, as well as low contrast detectability (LCD). Additionally, an image dataset from a patient's abdominal CT exam was used to assess the effectiveness of the filters on full dose and simulated half dose acquisitions. We found that both the BF and NLM methods improve the tradeoff between noise and high contrast spatial resolution with no significant difference in LCD. Results from the patient dataset demonstrated the potential of dose reduction with the denoising methods. Care must be taken when choosing the NLM parameters in order to minimize the generation of artifacts that could possibly compromise diagnostic value.
AB - Optimal noise control is important for improving image quality and reducing radiation dose in computed tomography. Here we investigated two image space based nonlinear filters for noise reduction: the bilateral filter (BF) and the nonlocal means (NLM) algorithm. Images from both methods were compared against those from a commercially available weighted filtered backprojection (WFBP) method. A standard phantom for quality assurance testing was used to quantitatively compare noise and spatial resolution, as well as low contrast detectability (LCD). Additionally, an image dataset from a patient's abdominal CT exam was used to assess the effectiveness of the filters on full dose and simulated half dose acquisitions. We found that both the BF and NLM methods improve the tradeoff between noise and high contrast spatial resolution with no significant difference in LCD. Results from the patient dataset demonstrated the potential of dose reduction with the denoising methods. Care must be taken when choosing the NLM parameters in order to minimize the generation of artifacts that could possibly compromise diagnostic value.
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U2 - 10.1109/IEMBS.2009.5334714
DO - 10.1109/IEMBS.2009.5334714
M3 - Conference contribution
C2 - 19964998
AN - SCOPUS:77950969274
SN - 9781424432967
T3 - Proceedings of the 31st Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society: Engineering the Future of Biomedicine, EMBC 2009
SP - 3529
EP - 3532
BT - Proceedings of the 31st Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society
Y2 - 2 September 2009 through 6 September 2009
ER -