A Fast Splitting Method for efficient Split Bregman Iterations

In this paper we propose a new fast splitting algorithm to solve the Weighted Split Bregman minimization problem in the backward step of an accelerated Forward-Backward algorithm. Beside proving the convergence of the method, numerical tests, carried out on different imaging applications, prove the accuracy and computational efficiency of the proposed algorithm

A fast Total Variation-based iterative algorithm for digital breast tomosynthesis image reconstruction:

In this work, we propose a fast iterative algorithm for the reconstruction of digital breast tomosynthesis images. The algorithm solves a regularization problem, expressed as the minimization of the sum of a least-squares term and a weighted smoothed version of the Total Variation regularization function. We use a Fixed Point method for the solution of the minimization problem, requiring the solution of a linear system at each iteration, whose coefficient matrix is a positive definite approximation of the Hessian of the objective function. We propose an efficient implementation of the algorithm, where the linear system is solved by a truncated Conjugate Gradient method. We compare the Fixed Point implementation with a fast first order method such as the Scaled Gradient Projection method, that does not require any linear system solution. Numerical experiments on a breast phantom widely used in tomographic simulations show that both the methods recover microcalcifications very fast while the Fixed Point is more efficient in detecting masses, when more time is available for the algorithm execution

A green prospective for learned post-processing in sparse-view tomographic reconstruction

Deep Learning is developing interesting tools that are of great interest for inverse imaging applications. In this work, we consider a medical imaging reconstruction task from subsampled measurements, which is an active research field where Convolutional Neural Networks have already revealed their great potential. However, the commonly used architectures are very deep and, hence, prone to overfitting and unfeasible for clinical usages. Inspired by the ideas of the green AI literature, we propose a shallow neural network to perform efficient Learned Post-Processing on images roughly reconstructed by the filtered backprojection algorithm. The results show that the proposed inexpensive network computes images of comparable (or even higher) quality in about one-fourth of time and is more robust than the widely used and very deep ResUNet for tomographic reconstructions from sparse-view protocols

CTprintNet: An Accurate and Stable Deep Unfolding Approach for Few-View CT Reconstruction

In this paper, we propose a new deep learning approach based on unfolded neural networks for the reconstruction of X-ray computed tomography images from few views. We start from a model-based approach in a compressed sensing framework, described by the minimization of a least squares function plus an edge-preserving prior on the solution. In particular, the proposed network automatically estimates the internal parameters of a proximal interior point method for the solution of the optimization problem. The numerical tests performed on both a synthetic and a real dataset show the effectiveness of the framework in terms of accuracy and robustness with respect to noise on the input sinogram when compared to other different data-driven approaches

GPU acceleration of a model-based iterative method for Digital Breast Tomosynthesis

Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT) is a modern 3D Computed Tomography X-ray technique for the early detection of breast tumors, which is receiving growing interest in the medical and scientific community. Since DBT performs incomplete sampling of data, the image reconstruction approaches based on iterative methods are preferable to the classical analytic techniques, such as the Filtered Back Projection algorithm, providing fewer artifacts. In this work, we consider a Model-Based Iterative Reconstruction (MBIR) method well suited to describe the DBT data acquisition process and to include prior information on the reconstructed image. We propose a gradient-based solver named Scaled Gradient Projection (SGP) for the solution of the constrained optimization problem arising in the considered MBIR method. Even if the SGP algorithm exhibits fast convergence, the time required on a serial computer for the reconstruction of a real DBT data set is too long for the clinical needs. In this paper we propose a parallel SGP version designed to perform the most expensive computations of each iteration on Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). We apply the proposed parallel approach on three different GPU boards, with computational performance comparable with that of the boards usually installed in commercial DBT systems. The numerical results show that the proposed GPU-based MBIR method provides accurate reconstructions in a time suitable for clinical trials

A comparison of regularization models for few-view CT image reconstruction

In this paper I analyse some regularization models for the reconstruction of X-rays Computed Tomography images from few-view projections. It is well known that the widely used low-cost Filtered Back Projection method is not suitable in case of lowdose data, since it produces images with noise and artifacts. Iterative reconstruction methods based on themodel discretization are preferred in this case.However, since the problem has infinite possible solutions and is ill-posed, regularization is necessary to obtain a good solution. Different iterative regularization methods have been proposed in literature, but an organized comparison among them is not available. We compare some regularization approaches in the case of few-view tomography by means of simulated projections from both a phantom and a real image

Quasi-Newton projection methods and the discrepancy principle in image restoration

In this work, the problem of the restoration of images corrupted by space invariant blur and noise is considered. This problem is ill-posed and regularization is required. The image restoration problem is formulated as a nonnegatively constrained minimization problem whose objective function depends on the statistical properties of the noise corrupting the observed image. The cases of Gaussian and Poisson noise are both considered. A Newton-like projection method with early stopping of the iterates is proposed as an iterative regularization method in order to determine a nonnegative approximation to the original image. A suitable approximation of the Hessian of the objective function is proposed for a fast solution of the Newton system. The results of the numerical experiments show the effectiveness of the method in computing a good solution in few iterations, when compared with some methods recently proposed as best performing

A feasible direction method for image restoration

In this work, a feasible direction method is proposed for computing the regularized solution of image restoration problems by simply using an estimate of the noise present on the data. The problem is formulated as an optimization problem with one quadratic constraint. The proposed method computes a feasible search direction by inexactly solving a trust region subproblem with the truncated Conjugate Gradient method of Steihaug. The trust region radius is adjusted to maintain feasibility and a line-search globalization strategy is employed. The global convergence of the method is proved. The results of image denoising and deblurring are presented in order to illustrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method