Experimental studies on few-view reconstruction for high-resolution micro-CT

J Xray Sci Technol. 2013;21(1):25-42. doi: 10.3233/XST-130364.

Abstract

High-resolution micro-CT offers 3D non-destructive imaging but scan times are prohibitively large in many cases. Advancements in image reconstruction offer great reduction in number of views while maintaining reconstruction accuracy; yet filtered back projection remains the de facto standard. An extensive study of few-view reconstruction using compressed-sensing based iterative techniques is carried out. Also, a novel 3D micro-CT phantom is proposed, and used for analyzing reconstruction accuracy. Numerical tests, and studies on real micro-CT data show that if measurement noise in projections is not extremely high, the number of views may be reduced to <formula>1/8^{th}</formula> of the typically acquired view numbers. The study motivates the adoption of advanced reconstruction techniques to allow faster scanning, lower dosage, and reduced data size in high-resolution micro-CT.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Imaging, Three-Dimensional / methods
  • Phantoms, Imaging
  • Poisson Distribution
  • X-Ray Microtomography / methods*