X-ray Scatter Estimation Using Deep Splines

Roser P, Birkhold A, Preuhs A, Syben-Leisner C, Felsner L, Hoppe E, Strobel N, Kowarschik M, Fahrig R, Maier A (2021)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2021

Journal

DOI: 10.1109/TMI.2021.3074712

Abstract

X-ray scatter compensation is a very desirable technique in flat-panel X-ray imaging and cone-beam computed tomography. State-of-the-art U-net based scatter removal approaches yielded promising results. However, as there are no physics’ constraints applied to the output of the U-Net, it cannot be ruled out that it yields spurious results. Unfortunately, in the context of medical imaging, those may be misleading and could lead to wrong conclusions. To overcome this problem, we propose to embed B-splines as a known operator into neural networks. This inherently constrains their predictions to well-behaved and smooth functions. In a study using synthetic head and thorax data as well as real thorax phantom data, we found that our approach performed on par with U-net when comparing both algorithms based on quantitative performance metrics. However, our approach not only reduces runtime and parameter complexity, but we also found it much more robust to unseen noise levels. While the U-net responded with visible artifacts, the proposed approach preserved the X-ray signal’s frequency characteristics.

Authors with CRIS profile

Involved external institutions

Siemens AG Germany (DE) Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften Würzburg-Schweinfurt Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Roser, P., Birkhold, A., Preuhs, A., Syben-Leisner, C., Felsner, L., Hoppe, E.,... Maier, A. (2021). X-ray Scatter Estimation Using Deep Splines. IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging. https://doi.org/10.1109/TMI.2021.3074712

MLA:

Roser, Philipp, et al. "X-ray Scatter Estimation Using Deep Splines." IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging (2021).

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