A practical and robust method for beam blocker-based cone beam CT scatter correction

Objective. In the traditional beam-blocker based cone beam CT (CBCT) scatter correction, the scatter measured in the region shaded by lead strips was multiplied by a correction factor to directly represent the scatter in the unblocked region. The correction factor optimization is a tedious process and lacks an objective stop criterion. To skip the optimization process, an indirect scatter estimation method was developed and validated in phantom imaging. Approach. A beam-blocker made of lead strips was mounted between the x-ray source and object for scatter estimation. The primary signal between lead strips in the blocked region was first calculated by subtracting the measured scatter, and then used to calculate the scatter signal in the unblocked region corresponding to the same attenuation path. The calculated scatter signal was smoothed via local filtration and used to correct the measured projection in the unblocked region. Finally, the CBCT was reconstructed via Feldkamp-Davis-Kress algorithm. A Catphan and a head phantom were used to verify the performance of the proposed method in both full-and half-blocker scenarios, and with and without a bow-tie filter. Main Results. For scans without the bow-tie filter, the CT number error was reduced to 3.97 +/- 2.27 and 5.51 +/- 3.90 HU in the full-and half-blocker scenarios, respectively, for the Catphan, and to 4.01 +/- 2.18 and 7.97 +/- 4.05 HU for the head phantom. When the bow-tie filter was applied, the CT number error was reduced to 2.29 +/- 1.42 and 6.72 +/- 0.77 HU in the full-and half-blocker scenarios, respectively, for the Catphan, and 2.35 +/- 1.25 and 4.96 +/- 1.89 HU for the head phantom. Significance. The proposed method effectively avoids the influence of the inserted beam blocker itself on the scatter intensity estimation, and proves a more practical and robust way for the beam-blocker based scatter correction in CBCT scanning.