A Deep Learning Approach for Rapid and Generalizable Denoising of Photon-Counting Micro-CT Images.

dc.contributor.author

Nadkarni, Rohan

dc.contributor.author

Clark, Darin P

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Allphin, Alex J

dc.contributor.author

Badea, Cristian T

dc.date.accessioned

2023-09-01T13:15:15Z

dc.date.available

2023-09-01T13:15:15Z

dc.date.issued

2023-07

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2023-09-01T13:15:13Z

dc.description.abstract

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.

dc.identifier

tomography9040102

dc.identifier.issn

2379-1381

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2379-139X

dc.identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10161/28880

dc.language

eng

dc.publisher

MDPI AG

dc.relation.ispartof

Tomography (Ann Arbor, Mich.)

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10.3390/tomography9040102

dc.subject

X-Ray Microtomography

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Signal-To-Noise Ratio

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Deep Learning

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Neural Networks, Computer

dc.title

A Deep Learning Approach for Rapid and Generalizable Denoising of Photon-Counting Micro-CT Images.

dc.type

Journal article

duke.contributor.orcid

Badea, Cristian T|0000-0002-1850-2522

pubs.begin-page

1286

pubs.end-page

1302

pubs.issue

4

pubs.organisational-group

Duke

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Pratt School of Engineering

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School of Medicine

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Clinical Science Departments

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Institutes and Centers

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Biomedical Engineering

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Radiology

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Duke Cancer Institute

pubs.publication-status

Published

pubs.volume

9

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