X-ray ct apparatus, reconstruction arithmetic device, and reconstruction arithmetic method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016278733-A1
Application number	US-201414778299-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 13, 2014
Priority date	Apr 8, 2013
Publication date	Sep 29, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

In order to provide an X-ray CT apparatus or the like capable of improving the image quality even with low-exposure scanning by reducing artifacts generated around high absorbers on an image while reducing the amount of image noise, a reconstruction arithmetic device 221 sets the number of iterations of iterative processing for correcting projection data, and calculates, as calibration coefficients, a correction coefficient β and an adjustment coefficient aα for adjusting the application ratio of noise reduction processing f 1 and signal strength maintenance processing f 2 included in the iterative processing. By performing the iterative processing including the noise reduction processing f 1 and signal strength maintenance processing f 2 on the projection data based on the number of iterations and the calibration coefficients α and β, corrected projection data is created, and a CT image is reconstructed.

First claim

1 . An X-ray CT apparatus, comprising:
an X-ray generator that emits X-rays from periphery of an object; an X-ray detector that detects X-rays transmitted through the object; a data acquisition system that acquires data detected by the X-ray detector; a reconstruction arithmetic device that creates projection data by receiving the data acquired by the data acquisition system and reconstructs a CT image using the projection data; and a display device that displays the CT image, wherein the reconstruction arithmetic device includes: a number-of-iterations setting section that sets the number of iterations of iterative processing for correcting the projection data; a calibration coefficient calculating section that calculates a calibration coefficient for adjusting an application ratio of a first processing function and a second processing function having a different characteristic from the first processing function, the first and second processing functions being included in the iterative processing; a successive approximation projection data correction processing section that creates corrected projection data by performing the iterative processing on the projection data based on the number of iterations and the calibration coefficient; and an image reconstruction section that reconstructs the CT image using the corrected projection data.

2 . The X-ray CT apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the reconstruction arithmetic device further includes: a relationship characteristic calculating section that calculates relationship characteristic data showing a relationship between a first and second image quality parameters and the calibration coefficient, a first image quality parameter being controlled by the first processing function and a second image quality parameter being controlled by the second processing function; and a target image quality setting section that sets a target value for each of the first and second image quality parameters, and the calibration coefficient calculating section calculates a calibration coefficient corresponding to the target value based on the relationship characteristic data.

3 . The X-ray CT apparatus according to claim 2 , further comprising:
a storage device that stores reference relationship characteristic data as a reference of the relationship characteristic data in advance, wherein the calibration coefficient calculating section includes: a feature amount extracting section that extracts a feature amount of the projection data; a shift amount calculating section that calculates a shift amount of each of the first and second image quality parameters based on the feature amount; and a relationship characteristic update section that calculates updated relationship characteristic data by updating the reference relationship characteristic data based on the shift amount, and the calibration coefficient corresponding to the target value is calculated based on the updated relationship characteristic data.

4 . The X-ray CT apparatus according to claim 3 ,
wherein the feature amount includes at least one of a first feature amount regarding a size of a feature region surrounded by a plurality of high absorber edges appearing in projection data, a second feature amount regarding a shape of the feature region, and a third feature amount regarding a magnitude of a projection value of the feature region.

5 . The X-ray CT apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the first processing function is a function regarding noise reduction, and the second processing function is a function regarding reduction of streak artifacts.

6 . The X-ray CT apparatus according to claim 2 ,
wherein the relationship characteristic data is stored as a look-up table.

7 . The X-ray CT apparatus according to claim 2 ,
wherein the relationship characteristic data is stored as an approximation function.

8 . The X-ray CT apparatus according to claim 2 ,
wherein the relationship characteristic data is stored for each of the scanning conditions.

9 . The X-ray CT apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an input device that inputs a parameter or condition required to calculate a calibration coefficient, wherein the calibration coefficient calculation section calculates the calibration coefficient based on the input a parameter or condition.

10 . A reconstruction arithmetic device, comprising:
a number-of-iterations setting section that sets the number of iterations of iterative processing for correcting projection data; a calibration coefficient calculating section that calculates a calibration coefficient for adjusting an application ratio of a first processing function and a second processing function having a different characteristic from the first processing function, the first and second processing functions being included in the iterative processing; a successive approximation projection data correction processing section that creates corrected projection data by performing the iterative processing on the projection data based on the number of iterations and the calibration coefficient; and an image reconstruction section that reconstructs a CT image using the corrected projection data.

11 . A reconstruction arithmetic method, comprising:
a number-of-iterations setting step in which a reconstruction arithmetic device sets the number of iterations of iterative processing for correcting projection data; a calibration coefficient calculation step in which the reconstruction arithmetic device calculates a calibration coefficient for adjusting an application ratio of a first processing function and a second processing function having a different characteristic from the first processing function, the first and second processing functions being included in the iterative processing; a corrected projection data creation step in which the reconstruction arithmetic device creates corrected projection data by performing the iterative processing on the projection data based on the number of iterations and the calibration coefficient; and a reconstruction step in which the reconstruction arithmetic device reconstructs a CT image using the corrected projection data.

Assignees

• Hitachi Medical Corp

Inventors

• Ogura Yuta
• Kohara Ryota

Classifications

• G06T12/20

  Inverse problem, i.e. transformations from projection space into object space · CPC title

• G06T12/10

  Image preprocessing, e.g. calibration, positioning of sources or scatter correction · CPC title

• A61B6/032

  Transmission computed tomography [CT] · CPC title

• A61B6/5205

  involving processing of raw data to produce diagnostic data · CPC title

• G06T11/005

  Physics · mapped topic