Development of a low-dose strategy for propagation-based imaging helical computed tomography (PBI-HCT): high image quality and reduced radiation dose

Background. Propagation-based imaging computed tomography (PBI-CT) has been recently emerging for visualizing low-density materials due to its excellent image contrast and high resolution. Based on this, PBI-CT with a helical acquisition mode (PBI-HCT) offers superior imaging quality (e.g., fewer ring artifacts) and dose uniformity, making it ideal for biomedical imaging applications. However, the excessive radiation dose associated with high-resolution PBI-HCT may potentially harm objects or hosts being imaged, especially in live animal imaging, raising a great need to reduce radiation dose.Methods. In this study, we strategically integrated Sparse2Noise (a deep learning approach) with PBI-HCT imaging to reduce radiation dose without compromising image quality. Sparse2Noise uses paired low-dose noisy images with different photon fluxes and projection numbers for high-quality reconstruction via a convolutional neural network (CNN). Then, we examined the imaging quality and radiation dose of PBI-HCT imaging using Sparse2Noise, as compared to when Sparse2Noise was used in low-dose PBI-CT imaging (circular scanning mode). Furthermore, we conducted a comparison study on the use of Sparse2Noise versus two other state-of-the-art low-dose imaging algorithms (i.e., Noise2Noise and Noise2Inverse) for imaging low-density materials using PBI-HCT at equivalent dose levels. Results. Sparse2Noise allowed for a 90% dose reduction in PBI-HCT imaging while maintaining high image quality. As compared to PBI-CT imaging, the use of Sparse2Noise in PBI-HCT imaging shows more effective by reducing additional radiation dose (30%-36%). Furthermore, helical scanning mode also enhances the performance of existing low-dose algorithms (Noise2Noise and Noise2Inverse); nevertheless, Sparse2Noise shows significantly higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) value compared to Noise2Noise and Noise2Inverse at the same radiation dose level. Conclusions and significance. Our proposed low-dose imaging strategy Sparse2Noise can be effectively applied to PBI-HCT imaging technique and requires lower dose for acceptable quality imaging. This would represent a significant advance imaging for low-density materials imaging and for future live animals imaging applications.