In this study, we systematically investigated the noise correlation properties among detector bins of CBCT projection
data by analyzing repeated projection measurements. The measurements were performed on a TrueBeam on-board
CBCT imaging system with a 4030CB flat panel detector. An anthropomorphic male pelvis phantom was used to acquire
500 repeated projection data at six different dose levels from 0.1 mAs to 1.6 mAs per projection at three fixed angles. To
minimize the influence of the lag effect, lag correction was performed on the consecutively acquired projection data. The
noise correlation coefficient between detector bin pairs was calculated from the corrected projection data. The noise
correlation among CBCT projection data was then incorporated into the covariance matrix of the penalized weighted
least-squares (PWLS) criterion for noise reduction of low-dose CBCT. The analyses of the repeated measurements show
that noise correlation coefficients are non-zero between the nearest neighboring bins of CBCT projection data. The
average noise correlation coefficients for the first- and second- order neighbors are 0.20 and 0.06, respectively. The noise
correlation coefficients are independent of the dose level. Reconstruction of the pelvis phantom shows that the PWLS
criterion with consideration of noise correlation results in a lower noise level as compared to the PWLS criterion without
considering the noise correlation at the matched resolution.
Scatter contamination in cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) degrades the image quality by introducing shading
artifacts. In our previous study, a moving-blocker-based approach was proposed to simultaneously estimate scatter and
reconstruct the complete volume within field of view (FOV) from a single CBCT scan. Promising results were obtained
from simulation studies. In this work, we implemented the moving blocker system on a LINAC on-board kV CBCT
imaging system. A physical attenuator (i.e., "blocker") consisting equal spaced lead strips was mounted on a linear
actuator. A step motor connected to the actuator drove the blocker to move back and forth along gantry rotation axis
during CBCT acquisition. Scatter signal was estimated from the blocked region of imaging panel, and interpolated into
the un-blocked region. A sparseness prior based statistical iterative reconstruction algorithm was used to reconstruct
CBCT images from un-blocked projections after the scatter signal was subtracted. Experimental studies were performed
on both a Catphan phantom and an anthropomorphic pelvis phantom to evaluate performance of the moving blocker
system. The scatter-induced shading artifacts were substantially reduced in the images acquired with the moving blocker
system. CT number error reduced in selected regions of interest of the Catphan phantom from 318 to 17. It also
decreased in those of the pelvis phantom from 239 to 10. We demonstrated for the first time that the moving blocker
system could successfully estimate the scatter signal in projection data, reduce the imaging dose and obtain complete
volumetric information within the FOV using a single scan.
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