Phase imaging coupled to micro-tomography acquisition has emerged as a powerful tool to investigate specimens in a non-destructive manner. While the intensity data can be acquired and recorded, the phase information o...Phase imaging coupled to micro-tomography acquisition has emerged as a powerful tool to investigate specimens in a non-destructive manner. While the intensity data can be acquired and recorded, the phase information of the signal has to be “retrieved” from the data modulus only. Phase retrieval is an ill-posed non-linear problem and regularization techniques including a priori knowledge are necessary to obtain stable solutions. Several linear phase recovery methods have been proposed and it is expected that some limitations resulting from the linearization of the direct problem will be overcome by taking into account the non-linearity of the phase problem. To achieve this goal, we propose and evaluate a non-linear algorithm for in-line phase micro-tomography based on an iterative Landweber method with an analytic calculation of the Fréchet derivative of the phase-intensity relationship and of its adjoint. The algorithm was applied in the projection space using as initialization the linear mixed solution. The efficacy of the regularization scheme was evaluated on simulated objects with a slowly and a strongly varying phase. Experimental data were also acquired at ESRF using a propagation-based X-ray imaging technique for the given pixel size 0.68 μm. Two regularization scheme were considered: first the initialization was obtained without any prior on the ratio of the real and imaginary parts of the complex refractive index and secondly a constant a priori value was assumed on ?. The tomographic central slices of the refractive index decrement were compared and numerical evaluation was performed. The non-linear method globally decreases the reconstruction errors compared to the linear algorithm and is achieving better reconstruction results if no prior is introduced in the initialization solution. For in-line phase micro-tomography, this non-linear approach is a new and interesting method in biomedical studies where the exact value of the a priori ratio is not known.展开更多
AIM:To evaluate the effect of non-linear adaptive filters (NLAF) on abdominal computed tomography (CT) images acquired at different radiation dose levels.METHODS:Nineteen patients (mean age 61.6 ± 7.9 years,M:F=... AIM:To evaluate the effect of non-linear adaptive filters (NLAF) on abdominal computed tomography (CT) images acquired at different radiation dose levels.METHODS:Nineteen patients (mean age 61.6 ± 7.9 years,M:F=8:11) gave informed consent for an Institutional Review Board approved prospective study involving acquisition of 4 additional image series (200,150,100,50 mAs and 120 kVp) on a 64 slice multidetector row CT scanner over an identical 10 cm length in the abdomen.The CT images acquired at 150,100 and 50 mAs were processed with the NLAF.Two radiologists reviewed unprocessed and processed images for image quality in a blinded randomized manner.CT dose index volume,dose length product,patient weight,transverse diameters,objective noise and CT numbers wererecorded.Data were analyzed using Analysis of Variance and Wilcoxon signed rank test.RESULTS:Of the 31 lesions detected in abdominal CT images,28 lesions were less than 1 cm in size.Subjective image noise was graded as unacceptable in unprocessed images at 50 and 100 mAs,and in NLAF processed images at 50 mAs only.In NLAF processed images,objective image noise was decreased by 21% (14.4 ± 4/18.2 ± 4.9) at 150 mAs,28.3% (15.7 ± 5.6/21.9 ± 4) at 100 mAs and by 39.4% (18.8 ± 9/30.4 ± 9.2) at 50 mAs compared to unprocessed images acquired at respective radiation dose levels.At 100 mAs the visibility of smaller structures improved from suboptimal in unprocessed images to excellent in NLAF processed images,whereas diagnostic confidence was respectively improved from probably confident to fully confident.CONCLUSION:NLAF lowers image noise,improves the visibility of small structures and maintains lesion conspicuity at down to 100 mAs for abdominal CT.展开更多
文摘Phase imaging coupled to micro-tomography acquisition has emerged as a powerful tool to investigate specimens in a non-destructive manner. While the intensity data can be acquired and recorded, the phase information of the signal has to be “retrieved” from the data modulus only. Phase retrieval is an ill-posed non-linear problem and regularization techniques including a priori knowledge are necessary to obtain stable solutions. Several linear phase recovery methods have been proposed and it is expected that some limitations resulting from the linearization of the direct problem will be overcome by taking into account the non-linearity of the phase problem. To achieve this goal, we propose and evaluate a non-linear algorithm for in-line phase micro-tomography based on an iterative Landweber method with an analytic calculation of the Fréchet derivative of the phase-intensity relationship and of its adjoint. The algorithm was applied in the projection space using as initialization the linear mixed solution. The efficacy of the regularization scheme was evaluated on simulated objects with a slowly and a strongly varying phase. Experimental data were also acquired at ESRF using a propagation-based X-ray imaging technique for the given pixel size 0.68 μm. Two regularization scheme were considered: first the initialization was obtained without any prior on the ratio of the real and imaginary parts of the complex refractive index and secondly a constant a priori value was assumed on ?. The tomographic central slices of the refractive index decrement were compared and numerical evaluation was performed. The non-linear method globally decreases the reconstruction errors compared to the linear algorithm and is achieving better reconstruction results if no prior is introduced in the initialization solution. For in-line phase micro-tomography, this non-linear approach is a new and interesting method in biomedical studies where the exact value of the a priori ratio is not known.
文摘 AIM:To evaluate the effect of non-linear adaptive filters (NLAF) on abdominal computed tomography (CT) images acquired at different radiation dose levels.METHODS:Nineteen patients (mean age 61.6 ± 7.9 years,M:F=8:11) gave informed consent for an Institutional Review Board approved prospective study involving acquisition of 4 additional image series (200,150,100,50 mAs and 120 kVp) on a 64 slice multidetector row CT scanner over an identical 10 cm length in the abdomen.The CT images acquired at 150,100 and 50 mAs were processed with the NLAF.Two radiologists reviewed unprocessed and processed images for image quality in a blinded randomized manner.CT dose index volume,dose length product,patient weight,transverse diameters,objective noise and CT numbers wererecorded.Data were analyzed using Analysis of Variance and Wilcoxon signed rank test.RESULTS:Of the 31 lesions detected in abdominal CT images,28 lesions were less than 1 cm in size.Subjective image noise was graded as unacceptable in unprocessed images at 50 and 100 mAs,and in NLAF processed images at 50 mAs only.In NLAF processed images,objective image noise was decreased by 21% (14.4 ± 4/18.2 ± 4.9) at 150 mAs,28.3% (15.7 ± 5.6/21.9 ± 4) at 100 mAs and by 39.4% (18.8 ± 9/30.4 ± 9.2) at 50 mAs compared to unprocessed images acquired at respective radiation dose levels.At 100 mAs the visibility of smaller structures improved from suboptimal in unprocessed images to excellent in NLAF processed images,whereas diagnostic confidence was respectively improved from probably confident to fully confident.CONCLUSION:NLAF lowers image noise,improves the visibility of small structures and maintains lesion conspicuity at down to 100 mAs for abdominal CT.
