Angle prediction model when the imaging plane is tilted about z-axis

J Supercomput. 2022;78(17):18598-18615. doi: 10.1007/s11227-022-04595-0. Epub 2022 Jun 8.

Abstract

Computer Tomography (CT) is a complicated imaging system, requiring highly geometric positioning. We found a special artifact caused by detection plane tilted around z-axis. In short scan cone-beam reconstruction, this kind of geometric deviation result in half circle shaped fuzzy around highlighted particles in reconstructed slices. This artifact is distinct near the slice periphery, but deficient around the slice center. We generated mathematical models, and InceptionV3-R deep network to study the slice artifact features to estimate the detector z-axis tilt angle. The testing results are: mean absolute error of 0.08819 degree, the Root mean square error of 0.15221 degree and R-square of 0.99944. A geometric deviation recover formula was deduced, which can eliminate this artifact efficiently. This research enlarges the CT artifact knowledge hierarchy, and verifies the capability of machine learning in CT geometric deviation artifact recoveries.

Keywords: Artifact; CT; Cone-beam; Geometric deviation; InceptionV3-R; Machine learning.