Piecewise-constant-model-based interior tomography applied to dentin tubules.

Dentin is a hierarchically structured biomineralized composite material, and dentin's tubules are difficult to study in situ. Nano-CT provides the requisite resolution, but the field of view typically contains only a few tubules. Using a plate-like specimen allows reconstruction of a volume containing specific tubules from a number of truncated projections typically collected over an angular range of about 140°, which is practically accessible. Classical computed tomography (CT) theory cannot exactly reconstruct an object only from truncated projections, needless to say a limited angular range. Recently, interior tomography was developed to reconstruct a region-of-interest (ROI) from truncated data in a theoretically exact fashion via the total variation (TV) minimization under the condition that the ROI is piecewise constant. In this paper, we employ a TV minimization interior tomography algorithm to reconstruct interior microstructures in dentin from truncated projections over a limited angular range. Compared to the filtered backprojection (FBP) reconstruction, our reconstruction method reduces noise and suppresses artifacts. Volume rendering confirms the merits of our method in terms of preserving the interior microstructure of the dentin specimen.