A Deep Learning Approach for Rapid and Generalizable Denoising of Photon-Counting Micro-CT Images.
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2023-07
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Photon-counting CT (PCCT) is powerful for spectral imaging and material decomposition but produces noisy weighted filtered backprojection (wFBP) reconstructions. Although iterative reconstruction effectively denoises these images, it requires extensive computation time. To overcome this limitation, we propose a deep learning (DL) model, UnetU, which quickly estimates iterative reconstruction from wFBP. Utilizing a 2D U-net convolutional neural network (CNN) with a custom loss function and transformation of wFBP, UnetU promotes accurate material decomposition across various photon-counting detector (PCD) energy threshold settings. UnetU outperformed multi-energy non-local means (ME NLM) and a conventional denoising CNN called UnetwFBP in terms of root mean square error (RMSE) in test set reconstructions and their respective matrix inversion material decompositions. Qualitative results in reconstruction and material decomposition domains revealed that UnetU is the best approximation of iterative reconstruction. In reconstructions with varying undersampling factors from a high dose ex vivo scan, UnetU consistently gave higher structural similarity (SSIM) and peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) to the fully sampled iterative reconstruction than ME NLM and UnetwFBP. This research demonstrates UnetU's potential as a fast (i.e., 15 times faster than iterative reconstruction) and generalizable approach for PCCT denoising, holding promise for advancing preclinical PCCT research.
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Nadkarni, Rohan, Darin P Clark, Alex J Allphin and Cristian T Badea (2023). A Deep Learning Approach for Rapid and Generalizable Denoising of Photon-Counting Micro-CT Images. Tomography (Ann Arbor, Mich.), 9(4). pp. 1286–1302. 10.3390/tomography9040102 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/28880.
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Scholars@Duke

Darin Clark

Cristian Tudorel Badea
- Our lab's research focus lies primarily in developing novel quantitative imaging systems, reconstruction algorithms and analysis methods. My major expertise is in preclinical CT.
- Currently, we are particularly interested in developing novel strategies for spectral CT imaging using nanoparticle-based contrast agents for theranostics (i.e. therapy and diagnostics).
- We are also engaged in developing new approaches for multidimensional CT image reconstruction suitable to address difficult undersampling cases in cardiac and spectral CT (dual energy and photon counting) using compressed sensing and/or deep learning.
- We are involved in co-clinical cancer trials and I have served as the Principal Investigator on the U24 Duke Preclinical Research Resources for Quantitative Imaging Biomarkers part of the NCI Co-Clinical Imaging Research Resources Program network (CIRP).
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