Program Information
Grid-Line Artifact Minimization for High Resolution Detectors Using Iterative Residual Scatter Correction
R Rana*, D Bednarek , S Rudin , Toshiba Stroke & Vascular Research Center, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY
Presentations
WE-G-204-6 (Wednesday, July 15, 2015) 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM Room: 204
Purpose:Anti-scatter grid-line artifacts are more prominent for high-resolution x-ray detectors since the fraction of a pixel blocked by the grid septa is large. Direct logarithmic subtraction of the artifact pattern is limited by residual scattered radiation and we investigate an iterative method for scatter correction.
Methods:A stationary Smit-Rοntgen anti-scatter grid was used with a high resolution Dexela 1207 CMOS X-ray detector (75 μm pixel size) to image an artery block (Nuclear Associates, Model 76-705) placed within a uniform head equivalent phantom as the scattering source. The image of the phantom was divided by a flat-field image obtained without scatter but with the grid to eliminate grid-line artifacts. Constant scatter values were subtracted from the phantom image before dividing by the averaged flat-field-with-grid image. The standard deviation of pixel values for a fixed region of the resultant images with different subtracted scatter values provided a measure of the remaining grid-line artifacts.
Results:A plot of the standard deviation of image pixel values versus the subtracted scatter value shows that the image structure noise reaches a minimum before going up again as the scatter value is increased. This minimum corresponds to a minimization of the grid-line artifacts as demonstrated in line profile plots obtained through each of the images perpendicular to the grid lines. Artifact-free images of the artery block were obtained with the optimal scatter value obtained by this iterative approach.
Conclusion:Residual scatter subtraction can provide improved grid-line artifact elimination when using the flat-field with grid “subtraction” technique. The standard deviation of image pixel values can be used to determine the optimal scatter value to subtract to obtain a minimization of grid line artifacts with high resolution x-ray imaging detectors.
Funding Support, Disclosures, and Conflict of Interest: This study was supported by NIH Grant R01EB002873 and an equipment grant from Toshiba Medical Systems Corp.
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