In order to reduce the grid artifacts, which are caused by using the antiscatter grid in obtaining x-ray digital images, we analyze the grid artifacts based on the multiplicative image formation model instead of the traditional additive model, and apply filters to suppress the artifact terms. The artifact terms are aliases of the modulated terms from the harmonics of the grid frequency. Hence, several filters are required to efficiently suppress the grid artifacts. However, applying filters also distort the original image that will be recovered. If the distance between the origin and the center frequency of the artifact term is relatively large, then we can suppress the artifact term less distorting the original image. In this paper, by increasing the distances for a given sampling frequency of the image detector, we design antiscatter grids, which are good in terms of efficient grid artifact reduction. In order to design optimal grids, we formulate min-max optimization problems and provide optimal grid frequencies for a fixed grid angle with respect to the sampling direction of the image detector and optimal grid angles for a fixed grid frequency. We then propose using rotated grids with the optimal grid angles in digital radiography imaging. By applying band-rejection filters to the artifact, we can considerably reduce the grid artifacts when comparing to the traditional non-rotated grid case for real x-ray images.

Date Published: 16 March 2011
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 7961, Medical Imaging 2011: Physics of Medical Imaging, 79610B (16 March 2011); doi: 10.1117/12.877930

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7961:
Medical Imaging 2011: Physics of Medical Imaging
Norbert J. Pelc; Ehsan Samei; Robert M. Nishikawa, Editor(s)