Bal Matthieu, Spies Lothar
Philips Research, Aachen, Germany.
Med Phys. 2006 Aug;33(8):2852-9. doi: 10.1118/1.2218062.
High-density objects such as metal prostheses, surgical clips, or dental fillings generate streak-like artifacts in computed tomography images. We present a novel method for metal artifact reduction by in-painting missing information into the corrupted sinogram. The information is provided by a tissue-class model extracted from the distorted image. To this end the image is first adaptively filtered to reduce the noise content and to smooth out streak artifacts. Consecutively, the image is segmented into different material classes using a clustering algorithm. The corrupted and missing information in the original sinogram is completed using the forward projected information from the tissue-class model. The performance of the correction method is assessed on phantom images. Clinical images featuring a broad spectrum of metal artifacts are studied. Phantom and clinical studies show that metal artifacts, such as streaks, are significantly reduced and shadows in the image are eliminated. Furthermore, the novel approach improves detectability of organ contours. This can be of great relevance, for instance, in radiation therapy planning, where images affected by metal artifacts may lead to suboptimal treatment plans.
诸如金属假体、手术夹或牙科填充物等高密度物体在计算机断层扫描图像中会产生条纹状伪影。我们提出了一种通过将缺失信息修复到损坏的正弦图中来减少金属伪影的新方法。该信息由从失真图像中提取的组织分类模型提供。为此,首先对图像进行自适应滤波以降低噪声含量并平滑条纹伪影。随后,使用聚类算法将图像分割为不同的材料类别。利用来自组织分类模型的前向投影信息来填补原始正弦图中损坏和缺失的信息。在体模图像上评估校正方法的性能。研究了具有广泛金属伪影的临床图像。体模和临床研究表明,条纹等金属伪影显著减少,图像中的阴影被消除。此外,新方法提高了器官轮廓的可检测性。这可能具有重大意义,例如在放射治疗计划中,受金属伪影影响的图像可能导致次优的治疗计划。