A reprojection reconstruction is proposed for limited angle cone-beam CT. This approach can be used as an improved method for any non-reprojection method such as total vibration (TV) minimization based and/or projection onto convex sets (POCS) methods in cone-beam CT reconstruction. Since the reprojection and backprojection are mutually inversed operations, the reprojection as line integral can be implemented with backprojector currently used in most CT systems. In this study, we focused on the effect of reprojection reconstruction with a small arc cone-beam CT scan. A human head phantom and a fiber glass plate were used for the study with 15 projections spanning 45° of the scan. The results showed that the ringing artifacts and edge unsharpness are greatly improved by the reprojection reconstruction method. We also found that an arc scan covering larger projection areas of the object would result in a much greater reconstruction result than a scan covering smaller projection areas with and without reprojection reconstruction method.

Date Published: 19 March 2013
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 8668, Medical Imaging 2013: Physics of Medical Imaging, 866831 (19 March 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2008156

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8668:
Medical Imaging 2013: Physics of Medical Imaging
Robert M. Nishikawa; Bruce R. Whiting; Christoph Hoeschen, Editor(s)