System and method for estimating a statistical noise map in x-ray imaging applications

摘要

Described here are a system and method for producing a statistical noise map that indicates the noise present in data acquired with an x-ray imaging system, such as an x-ray computed tomography system, an x-ray tomosynthesis system, a C-arm x-ray imaging system, and so on. In general, an image is reconstructed from the acquired data using, for example, any standard filtered back projection (“FBP”) image reconstruction algorithm. This image is used as a base line to estimate a noise standard distribution map. The raw projection data represents a typical measurement among many repeated measurements under the same experimental conditions; therefore, the measured projection data can be used to numerically generate an ensemble of many (e.g., twenty or more) noisy projection data sets. These noisy projection data sets are then used to reconstruct noisy images and from these noisy images and the original image, the statistical noise map can be computed.

主权项

1. A method for producing a statistical noise map using an x-ray imaging system, the steps of the method comprising:
a) acquiring data with the x-ray imaging system, the acquired data indicating a count of photons detected by the x-ray imaging system; b) reconstructing an image from the data acquired in step a); c) forming noisy data by adding statistical noise to the data acquired in step a); d) reconstructing a noisy image from the noisy data formed in step c); and e) producing a statistical noise map by subtracting the image reconstructed in step b) and the noisy image reconstructed in step d).