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A new software scheme for scatter correction based on a simple radiographic scattering model

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Abstract

In common radiography, image contrast is often limited due mainly to scattered x-rays and noise, decreasing the quantitative usefulness of x-ray images. Several scatter reduction methods based on software correction schemes have been extensively investigated in an attempt to overcome these difficulties, most of which are based on measurement, mathematical-physical modeling, or a combination of both. However, those methods require special equipment, system geometry, and extra manual work to measure scatter characteristics. In this study, we investigated a new software scheme for scatter correction based on a simple radiographic scattering model where the intensity of the scattered x-rays was directly estimated from a single x-ray image using a weighted l1-norm contextual regularization framework. We implemented the proposed algorithm and performed a systematic simulation and experiment to demonstrate its viability. We also conducted some clinical image studies using patient’s image data of breast and L-spine to verify the clinical effectiveness of the proposed scheme. Our results indicate that the degradation of image characteristics by scattered x-rays and noise was effectively recovered by using the proposed software scheme, thus improving radiographic visibility considerably.

The schematic illustrations of scatter suppression methods by using a an antiscatter grid and b a scatter estimation algorithm.

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Funding

This study was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Korea Ministry of Science and ICT (NRF-2017 R1A2B2002891).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiation Convergence Engineering, Yonsei University, Wonju, 26493, South Korea

    K. Kim, S. Kang, W. Kim, C. Park, D. Lee, H. Cho, W. Kang, S. Park, G. Kim, H. Lim, H. Lee, J. Park, D. Jeon, Y. Lim & T. Woo

  2. Division of Convergence Technology, National Cancer Center, Goyang, 10408, South Korea

    J. Oh

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  1. K. Kim
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  2. S. Kang
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  3. W. Kim
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  9. G. Kim
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  11. H. Lee
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  14. Y. Lim
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  15. T. Woo
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  16. J. Oh
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to H. Cho.

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Kim, K., Kang, S., Kim, W. et al. A new software scheme for scatter correction based on a simple radiographic scattering model. Med Biol Eng Comput 57, 489–503 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-018-1893-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-018-1893-1

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