Reduced partial volume artifacts in image reconstruction, with application to X-ray computed tomography

摘要

An apparatus for correcting an X-ray tomographic image is presented, where the tomographic image is created by measuring an X-ray transmission coefficient at each of a plurality of X-ray beam paths through an object to enable reconstructing a tomographic image of the object. There is a device for selecting a plurality of volume averaged voxels along at least one of the X-ray beam ray paths, and for placing contiguous volume averaged voxels in a run length of volume averaged voxels, to make a plurality of run lengths of volume averaged voxels. There is a device for dividing the plurality of run lengths of volume averaged voxels into a plurality of subslices. There is a device, responsive to the plurality of subslices and responsive to the plurality of run lengths of volume averaged voxels, for computing a corrected value of X-ray attenuation coefficient for the X-ray beam ray path. There is a device for reconstructing a correction image using the corrected X-ray attenuation coefficient for each X-ray beam ray path. Finally, there is a device for obtaining an improved image by combining the tomographic image with the correction image.