3D view weighted cone-beam backprojection reconstruction for digital tomosynthesis

Cone-beam filtered backprojection (CB-FBP) is one of the major reconstruction algorithms for digital tomosynthesis. In conventional FBP, the photon fluxes in projections are evenly distributed along the X-ray beam. Due to the limited view angles and finite detector dimensions, this uniform weighting causes non-uniformity in the recon images and leads to cone-beam artifact. In this paper, we propose a 3-D view weighting technique in combination with FBP to combat this artifact. An anthropomorphic chest phantom was placed at supine position to enable the imaging of chest PA view. During a linear sweep of X-ray source, 41 X-ray images at different projection angles were acquired with the following protocol: 120kVp, 160mA, and 0.64mAs/exposure. To create the worst scenario for testing, we chose 60 degrees as the sweep angle in this exam. The data set was reconstructed with conventional CB-FBP and proposed algorithm under the same parameters: FOV = 40x40 cm^2, and slice thickness = 4mm. 3 recon slices were randomly selected for review with slice height = 10.5/14.5/17.5cm. Results were assessed qualitatively by human observers and quantitatively through ROI measurement. In each slice, three pre-defined ROIs (50x50 pixels)--ROI A and B are in artifact more pronounced area, and ROI C is in relatively artifact-free area--are extracted and measured. The non-uniformity error was defined as the ratio of MEAN(AVG(C-A), AVG(C-B)) / AVG(C). The average non-uniformity error over the three test images was 0.428 for without view weighting and only 0.041 for with view weighting.