We have previously shown in simulations that X-ray Interferometry using Modulated Phase Gratings can create an interference pattern in clinical detectors from which attenuation, differential phase, and dark-field contrast images can be formed. This interferometric technique is advantageous since it eliminates the need to use an absorption grating as compared to Talbot-Lau grating systems, providing better dose-efficiency. In this work we experimentally evaluated this modulated phase grating system using initial test gratings obtained from Microworks GmbH, Germany. Experiments with the MPG gratings were conducted at the monochromatic 8 keV beamline at the LSU Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices (CAMD). After analyzing our fringe pattern and eliminating the effect of source grating (G0), we observed stable fringe patterns for our MPG system at different source grating (G0) to MPG distances. The fringe pattern results from these experiments that indicate the feasibility and potential of an X-ray MPG system that could be functional with only a single-phase grating (and source grating) as opposed to a standard interferometry system that additionally requires an absorption grating near the detector.
A phase contrast system with a modulated phase grating (MPG) eliminates the need for an analyzer when compared to a standard Talbot Lau X-ray interferometer. This can provide three scans with the same total dose to the object as a standard mammogram. In this work, a hybrid MPG phase contrast system was investigated where the system fringe period can be varied, by changing a single system parameter, allowing interrogation at different resolutions and scatter lengths to further the variety of scans possible with the phase contrast system. The system can be also used for screening in a default setting.
The objective of this work was to create a MLEM software-based scatter correction algorithm for removing the effect of Compton Scatter from mammography images acquired without scatter grid or with analyzer-less interferometry. We developed an MLEM algorithm with an efficient linear scatter model to estimate the thickness of compressed breast and evaluated the algorithm with breast images acquired with the GEANT4 Monte Carlo software. The thicknesses estimated from the algorithm on the GEANT4 images were compared to the true geometric thicknesses of the ellipsoid for each pixel of the detector and matched to within ~2mm RMS error.
Purpose: We investigate an analyzer-less x-ray interferometer with a spatially modulated phase grating (MPG) that can deliver three modalities (attenuation image, phase image, and scatter images) in breast computed tomography (BCT). The system can provide three x-ray modalities while preserving the dose to the object and can achieve attenuation image sensitivity similar to that of a standard absorption-only BCT. The MPG system works with a source, a source-grating, a single phase grating, and a detector. No analyzer is necessary. Thus, there is an approximately 2x improvement in fluence at the detector for our system compared with the same source–detector distance Talbot–Lau x-ray interferometry (TLXI) because the TLXI has an analyzer after the object, which is not required for the MPG.
Approach: We investigate the MPG BCT system in simulations and find a clinically feasible system geometry. First, the mechanism of MPG interferometry is conceptually shown via Sommerfeld–Rayleigh diffraction integral simulations. Next, we investigate source coherence requirements, fringe visibility, and phase sensitivity dependence on different system parameters and find clinically feasible system geometry.
Results: The phase sensitivity of MPG interferometry is proportional to object–detector distance and inversely proportional to a period of broad fringes at the detector, which is determined by the grating spatial modulation period. In our simulations, the MPG interferometry can achieve about 27% fringe visibility with clinically realistic BCT geometry of a total source–detector distance of 950 mm and source–object distance of 500 mm.
Conclusions: We simulated a promising analyzer-less x-ray interferometer, with a spatially sinusoidal MPG. Our system is expected to deliver the attenuation, phase and scatter image in a single acquisition without dose or fluence detriment, compared with conventional BCT.
Phase-contrast X-ray provides attenuation, phase-shift and small-angle-scatter in tissue in same scan yielding multi-contrast information about object, which has greatly benefitted breast-imaging, pre-clinical lung-imaging and bone imaging. A primary barrier for clinical adaptation of interferometric X-ray/CT for torso imaging is the manufacturing difficulty of large gratings. Large-gratings have to be stitched from smaller elements introducing errors such as gaps, errors in pitch, phase-jumps, tilts, causing imaging artifacts. Removing these artifacts will be an advancement towards clinical adaptability this multi-contrast modality. In this work we focus on the Talbot-Lau X-ray Interferometer and investigate effects of different grating defects in 1-D simulations. The grating spot defects include gaps, pitch errors, phase-height errors. We quantify the sum-squared error in reconstructed phase for different types of defects, showing most egregious artifacts for the pitch-errors. We developed two artifact correction methods in interference fringe patterns (i.e. before reconstruction) – an analytical and a neutral network approach. The analytical method (SWFT) uses Short- Window-Fourier-Transform to estimate the local phase-shift and attenuation due to the defect in the blank scans and then applies the correction for the with-objects scans. We also proposed a Regression Convolution Neural Network (R-CNN) to learn these errors and correct for them. Distinct sets of pitch artifacts were used each for training (300 datasets) and testing (300 datasets) with variety of levels of severity of artifacts for three different objects – sphere, ramp and slab. The algorithms performed well, reducing the artifacts from initial average normalized-mean-squared-error of 44.7% to 6.3% for SWFT and 7% for SWFT+R-CNN.
We introduce a new approach for designing deep learning algorithms for computed tomography applications. Rather than training generically-structured neural network architectures to equivalently perform imaging tasks, we show how to leverage classical iterative-reconstruction algorithms such as Newton-Raphson and expectation- maximization (EM) to bootstrap network performance to a good initialization-point, with a well-understood baseline of performance. Specifically, we demonstrate a natural and systematic way to design these networks for both transmission-mode x-ray computed tomography (XRCT) and emission-mode single-photon computed tomography (SPECT), highlighting that our method is capable of preserving many of the nice properties, such as convergence and understandability, that is featured in classical approaches. The key contribution of this work is a formulation of the reconstruction task that enables data-driven improvements in image clarity and artifact reduction without sacrificing understandability. In this early work, we evaluate our method on a number of synthetic phantoms, highlighting some of the benefits and difficulties of this machine-learning approach.
KEYWORDS: Crystals, Sensors, Scintillation, Single photon emission computed tomography, Monte Carlo methods, Photons, Scintillators, Detection and tracking algorithms, Geometrical optics
Purpose: Dey group proposed a high sensitivity Cardiac SPECT system using hemi-ellipsoid detectors with pinhole collimation. To investigate detector resolution in more detail, we simulate the scintillator light spread on a monolithic hemi-ellipsoidal CsI crystal. We assume small optical light detectors will be placed on the outer surface of the crystal. Methods: We used Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation to produce the expected distribution of scintillation light on the outer surface of the crystal. This Lookup Table (LUT) is generated for 12 points, 4 at each of the apex, central region, and base of one slice of the crystal. Each set of points was situated at the corners of a “square” of side length 2mm. The light distributions were visualized using a flattened, cut hemi-ellipsoid. To test the performance of the LUT, 5 points inside each of the these “squares” were chosen as test points, and a light distribution was obtained for each. A light distribution match algorithm was developed to localize the test points. Results: Our results showed that, visually, we were able to distinguish the light distributions of points in the central region and base. Furthermore, our algorithm was able to localize the test points to within 1mm in these regions. The localization was slightly worse in the apex with a maximum error of about 1.5mm. However, the high magnification in the apex region will minimize the error in the system resolution for this region. In the future, we will simulate the full LUT and improve the search algorithm.
Phase contrast X-ray not only provides attenuation of tissue, but two other modalities (phase and scatter) in same scan. Scatter (dark-field) images provided by the technology are far more sensitive to structural and density changes of tissue such as lungs and can identify lung disease where conventional X-ray fails. Other areas poised to benefit greatly are mammography and bone joint imaging (eg. imaging arthritis). Of the various interferometer techniques, the two at the forefront are: Far-field Interferometry (FFI) (Miao et al, Nat. Phy. 2015) and Talbot-Lau interferometry (TLI) (Momose JJAP 2005, Pfeiffer Nature 2006). While the TLI has already made clinical strides, the newer FFI has advantage of not requiring an absorption grating (“analyzer”) and provides few-fold higher scatter sensitivity. In this work, a novel 2D single phase-grating (not requiring the analyzer), near-field phase contrast system was simulated using Sommerfeld- Rayleigh diffraction integrals. We observed 2D fringe patterns (pitch 800nm) at 50mm distance from the grating. Such a pattern period of 0.05mm, can be imaged by the LSU-interferometers with CT detector resolution (0.015mm) or Philips mammography detector resolution (0.05mm) making this practical system. Our design has a few advantages over Miao et al FFI system. We accomplish in one X-ray grating the functionality that requires 2-3 phase-grating in their design. And our design can also provide a compact system (source to detector distance < 1m) with control over the fringe pattern by fine tuning grating structure. We retain all the benefits of far-field systems -- of not requiring analyzer and high scatter sensitivity over Talbot-Lau interferometers.
Clinical Oncological imaging is performed with various modalities, CT, MRI and F-18-FDG-PET. Recently,
investigators have used diffusion-advective-reaction tumor-growth models for registration to brain-atlas for MRI braintumor
datasets. We wish to extract model parameters from clinical time series scans of tumors (e.g. CT or MRI of brain
or lung tumors) to see if some of the parameters, tumor growth rate and/or diffusion-coefficient, could potentially serve
as predictive markers for monitoring disease and treatment response. We can then correlate with disease history and/or
PET SUV to assess the viability of the model parameters as markers. One hurdle to performing this is that for majority
of patients only 1 or 2 scans would be available for a specific tumor. We first take an existing diffusion-advectionreaction
dynamic tumor growth model and generate series of synthetic tumors. Then we try to invert the model and
recover the coefficient for one or multiple target scans, minimizing the sum-squared-error using APPSPACK. We find
that for this idealized case we could recover the diffusion-coefficient and growth-rate parameters with ~2%-3% error
whether we used the entire time series or a single time point. However, in general, for either case (multiple or single time
scan) some additional parameters such the tumor time scan and starting locations maybe necessary in the minimization.
In a second (novel) approach, we hypothesize that over a short time scale the tumor density/volume change is small (or
undetectable). Thus the cell birth and death and diffusion terms are in near-equilibrium. This steady-state model
diffusion-coefficient and growth parameters may then be extracted from even a single CT or MRI scan available for each
patient. Our steady state forward simulation and inversion could recover steady-state diffusion and growth-rate
parameters with near-perfect (~0.6% ) error for no-noise case and ~(0,7%) error for a high-noise case. The steady-state
model fitted excellently to a lung-tumor (1-d) profile of an (anonymized) patient with only 1.74% fitting error in a sumsquared
sense.
Novel methods of reconstructing the tracer distribution in myocardial perfusion images are being considered for lowcount
and sparse sampling scenarios. Few examples of low count scenarios are when the amount of radioisotope
administered or the acquisition time is lowered, in gated studies where individual gates are reconstructed. Examples of
sparse angular sampling scenarios are patient motion correction in traditional SPECT where few angles are acquired at
any given pose and in multi-pinhole SPECT where the geometry is sparse and truncated by design. The reconstruction
method is based on the assumption that the tracer distribution is sparse in the transform domain, which is enforced by a
sparsity-promoting penalty on the transform coefficients. In this work we investigated the curvelet transform as the
sparse basis for myocardial perfusion SPECT. The objective is to determine if myocardial perfusion images can be
efficiently represented in this transform domain, which can then be exploited in a penalized maximum likelihood (PML)
reconstruction scheme for improving defect detection in low-count/ sparse sampling scenarios. The performance of this
algorithm is compared to standard OSEM with 3D Gaussian post-filtering using bias-variance plots and numerical
observer studies. The Channelized Non-prewhitening Observer (CNPW) was used for defect detection task in a “signalknown-
statistically” LROC study. Preliminary investigations indicate better bias-variance characteristics and superior
CNPW performance with the proposed curvelet basis. However, further assessment using more defect locations and
human observer evaluation is needed for clinical significance.
KEYWORDS: Magnetic resonance imaging, Monte Carlo methods, Single photon emission computed tomography, 3D modeling, Motion models, Signal attenuation, Electrocardiography, Chest, Heart, Motion estimation
Patient motion can cause artifacts, which can lead to difficulty in interpretation. The purpose of this study is to create 3D
digital anthropomorphic phantoms which model the location of the structures of the chest and upper abdomen of human
volunteers undergoing a series of clinically relevant motions. The 3D anatomy is modeled using the XCAT phantom and
based on MRI studies. The NURBS surfaces of the XCAT are interactively adapted to fit the MRI studies. A detailed
XCAT phantom is first developed from an EKG triggered Navigator acquisition composed of sagittal slices with a 3 x 3
x 3 mm voxel dimension. Rigid body motion states are then acquired at breath-hold as sagittal slices partially covering
the thorax, centered on the heart, with 9 mm gaps between them. For non-rigid body motion requiring greater sampling,
modified Navigator sequences covering the entire thorax with 3 mm gaps between slices are obtained. The structures of
the initial XCAT are then adapted to fit these different motion states. Simultaneous to MRI imaging the positions of
multiple reflective markers on stretchy bands about the volunteer's chest and abdomen are optically tracked in 3D via
stereo imaging. These phantoms with combined position tracking will be used to investigate both imaging-data-driven
and motion-tracking strategies to estimate and correct for patient motion. Our initial application will be to cardiacperfusion
SPECT imaging where the XCAT phantoms will be used to create patient activity and attenuation distributions
for each volunteer with corresponding motion tracking data from the markers on the body-surface. Monte Carlo methods
will then be used to simulate SPECT acquisitions, which will be used to evaluate various motion estimation and
correction strategies.
Preliminary evidence has suggested that computerized tomographic (CT) imaging of the breast using a cone-beam,
flat-panel detector system dedicated solely to breast imaging has potential for improving detection and
diagnosis of early-stage breast cancer. Hypothetically, a powerful mechanism for assisting in early stage breast
cancer detection from annual screening breast CT studies would be to examine temporal changes in the breast from
year-to-year. We hypothesize that 3D image registration could be used to automatically register breast CT volumes
scanned at different times (e.g., yearly screening exams). This would allow radiologists to quickly visualize small
changes in the breast that have developed during the period since the last screening CT scan, and use this
information to improve the diagnostic accuracy of early-stage breast cancer detection. To test our hypothesis, fresh
mastectomy specimens were imaged with a flat-panel CT system at different time points, after moving the specimen
to emulate the re-positioning motion of the breast between yearly screening exams. Synthetic tumors were then
digitally inserted into the second CT scan at a clinically realistic location (to emulate tumor growth from year-to-year).
An affine and a spline-based 3D image registration algorithm was implemented and applied to the CT
reconstructions of the specimens acquired at different times. Subtraction of registered image volumes was then
performed to better analyze temporal change. Results from this study suggests that temporal change analysis in 3D
breast CT can potentially be a powerful tool in improving the visualization of small lesion growth.
Ultrasound imaging is a noninvasive technique well-suited for detecting abnormalities like cysts, lesions and blood clots. In order to use 3D ultrasound to visualize the size and shape of such abnormalities, effective boundary detection methods are needed. A robust boundary detection technique using a nearest neighbor map (NNM) and applicable to multi-object cases has been developed. The algorithm contains three modules: pre-processor, main processor and boundary constructor. The pre-processor detects the object(s) and obtains geometrical as well as statistical information for each object, whereas the main processor uses that information to perform the final processing of the image. These first two modules perform image normalization, thresholding, filtering using median, wavelet, Wiener and morphological operation, estimation and boundary detection of object(s) using NNM, and calculation of object size and their location. The boundary constructor module implements an active contour model that uses information from previous modules to obtain seed-point(s). The algorithm has been found to offer high boundary detection accuracy of 96.4% for single scan plane (SSP) and 97.9 % for multiple scan plane (MSP) images. The algorithm was compared with Stick's algorithm and Gibbs Joint Probability Function based algorithm and was found to offer shorter execution time with higher accuracy than either of them. SSP numerically modeled ultrasound images, SSP real ultrasound images, MSP phantom images and MSP numerically modeled ultrasound images were processed.
Medical ultrasound images are noisy with speckle, acoustic noise and other artifacts. Reduction of speckle in particular is useful for CAD algorithms. We use two algorithms, namely, mean curvature evolution of the ultrasound image surface and a variation of the mean-curvature flow, to reduce speckle. The premise is that when we view the ultrasound image as a surface, the speckle appears as a high-curvature jagged layer over the true objects intensities and will reduce quickly on curvature evolution. We compare the two speckle reduction algorithms. We apply the speckle reduction to an image of a cyst and a 4-chamber view of the heart. We show significant, if not complete, speckle reduction, while keeping the relevant organ boundaries intact. On the speckle-reduced images, we apply a segmentation algorithm to detect objects. The segmentation algorithm is two-stepped. In the first step we choose a prior-shape and optimize the pose parameters to maximize the edge-pixels the curve falls into, using gradient ascent. In the second step, a radial motion is used to draw the contour points to the local-edges. We apply the algorithm on a cyst and obtain satisfactory results. We compare the total area inside the boundary output of our segmentation algorithm and to the total area covered by a hand-drawn boundary of the cyst, and the ratio is about 97%.
Respiratory motion degrades image quality in PET and SPECT imaging. Patient specific information on the motion of structures such as the heart if obtained from CT slices from a dual-modality imaging system can be employed to compensate for motion during emission reconstruction. The CT datasets may not be contrast enhanced. Since each patient may have 100-120 coronal slices covering the heart, an automated but accurate segmentation of the heart is important. We developed and implemented an algorithm to segment the heart in non-contrast CT datasets. The algorithm has two steps. In the first step we place a truncated-ellipse curve on a mid-slice of the heart, optimize its pose, and then track the contour through the other slices of the same dataset. During the second step the contour points are drawn to the local edge points by minimizing an distance measure. The segmentation algorithm was tested on 10 patients and the boundaries were determined to be accurate to within 2 mm of the visually ascertained locations of the borders of the heart. The segmentation was automatic except for initial placement of the first truncated-ellipse and for having to re-initialize the contour for 3 patients for less than 3% (1-3 slices) of the coronal slices of the heart. These end-slices constituted less than 0.3% of the heart volume.
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