Rollano-Hijarrubia Empar, Niessen Wiro, Weinans Harrie, van der Lugt Aad, Stokking Rik
Department of Radiology, Erasmus MC-University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Invest Radiol. 2007 Jan;42(1):8-22. doi: 10.1097/01.rli.0000248894.94242.96.
Computed tomography (CT) imaging of small high-density structures, eg, calcifications, is hampered by image blur. This study aims to deconvolve calcifications in the transverse and longitudinal directions while avoiding noise amplification and edge-ringing artifacts in the surrounding low-density structures.
A method referred to as histogram-based selective deblurring (HiSD) has been developed to generate a restored image by combining the low-intensity (ie, Hounsfield Units) information of the original image with the high-intensity information of the deconvolved image. HiSD is evaluated on phantom and in vitro atherosclerotic plaque CT images by comparing the original and restored images with their corresponding reference micro-CT images both qualitatively and quantitatively.
HiSD reduces calcification blur in the transverse and longitudinal directions without introducing noise and ringing-artifacts in the surrounding tissues. Calcification area and volume measurements are significantly improved in the restored images (reducing on average overestimation by 32% and 83%, respectively).
HiSD significantly improves CT visualization and quantification of small high-density structures imaged in vitro.
