TV-regularized Iterative Image Reconstruction on a Mobile C-ARM CT

3D computed tomography has been extensively studied and widely used in modern society. Although most manufacturers choose the filtered backprojection algorithm (FBP) for its accuracy and efficiency, iterative reconstruction methods have a significant potential to provide superior performance for incomplete, noisy projection data. However, iterative methods have a high computational cost, which hinders their practical use. Furthermore, regularization is usually required to reduce the effects of noise. In this paper, we analyze the use of the Simultaneous Algebraic Reconstruction Technique (SART) with total variation (TV) regularization. Additionally, graphics hardware is utilized to increase the speed of SART. NVIDIA's GPU and Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) comprise the core of our computational platform. GPU implementation details, including ray-based forward projection and voxel-based backprojection are illustrated. Experimental results for high-resolution synthetic and real data are provided to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed framework.