Compensating the intensity fall-off effect in cone-beam tomography by an empirical weight formula

Appl Opt. 2008 Nov 10;47(32):6033-9. doi: 10.1364/ao.47.006033.

Abstract

The Feldkamp-David-Kress (FDK) algorithm is widely adopted for cone-beam reconstruction due to its one-dimensional filtered backprojection structure and parallel implementation. In a reconstruction volume, the conspicuous cone-beam artifact manifests as intensity fall-off along the longitudinal direction (the gantry rotation axis). This effect is inherent to circular cone-beam tomography due to the fact that a cone-beam dataset acquired from circular scanning fails to meet the data sufficiency condition for volume reconstruction. Upon observations of the intensity fall-off phenomenon associated with the FDK reconstruction of a ball phantom, we propose an empirical weight formula to compensate for the fall-off degradation. Specifically, a reciprocal cosine can be used to compensate the voxel values along longitudinal direction during three-dimensional backprojection reconstruction, in particular for boosting the values of voxels at positions with large cone angles. The intensity degradation within the z plane, albeit insignificant, can also be compensated by using the same weight formula through a parameter for radial distance dependence. Computer simulations and phantom experiments are presented to demonstrate the compensation effectiveness of the fall-off effect inherent in circular cone-beam tomography.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Computer Simulation
  • Cone-Beam Computed Tomography / methods*
  • Equipment Design
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Models, Statistical
  • Optics and Photonics*
  • Pattern Recognition, Automated
  • Phantoms, Imaging
  • Scattering, Radiation
  • X-Rays