Edge-preserving denoising for intra-operative cone beam CT in endovascular aneurysm repair

Yi Liu (1) , Miguel Castro (1) , Mathieu Lederlin (1, 2) , Huazhong Shu (3, 4) , Adrien Kaladji (1, 5) , Pascal Haigron (1, 4)

1 LTSI - Laboratoire Traitement du Signal et de l'Image
2 Département de Radiologie [CHU de Rennes]
3 LIST - Laboratory of Image Science and Technology [Nanjing]
4 CRIBS - Centre de Recherche en Information Biomédicale sino-français
5 Service de chirurgie thoracique cardiaque et vasculaire [Rennes] = Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery [Rennes]

C-arm cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) acquisition during endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) is an emergent technology with more and more applications. It offers real time imaging with a stationary patient and provides 3-D information to achieve guidance of intervention. However, there is growing concern on the overall radiation doses delivered to patients all along the endovascular management due to pre-, intra-, and post-operative X-ray imaging. Manufactures may have their low dose protocols to realize reduction of radiation dose, but CBCT with a low dose protocol has too many artifacts, particularly streak artifacts, and decreased contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). To reduce noise and artifacts, a penalized weighted least-squares (PWLS) algorithm with an edge-preserving penalty is proposed. The proposed method is evaluated by quantitative parameters including a defined signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), CNR, and modulation transfer function (MTF) on clinical CBCT. Comparisons with PWLS algorithms with isotropic, TV, Huber, anisotropic penalties demonstrate that the proposed edge-preserving penalty performs well not only on edge preservation, but also on streak artifacts suppression, which may be crucial for observing guidewire and stentgraft in EVAR.

Mots clés: edge-preserving penalty; intra-operative CBCT; Endovascular aneurysm repair; penalized weighted least-squares; image denoising

Domaines: Traitement du signal et de l'image [eess.SP]; Imagerie; Chirurgie; Cardiologie et système cardiovasculaire

Yi Liu, Miguel Castro, Mathieu Lederlin, Huazhong Shu, Adrien Kaladji, et al.. Edge-preserving denoising for intra-operative cone beam CT in endovascular aneurysm repair. Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics, 2017, 56, pp.49-59. ⟨10.1016/j.compmedimag.2017.01.004⟩. ⟨hal-01502239⟩