4D Processing of Gated SPECT Images Using Deformable Mesh Modeling

In this work we present a new 4D approach for reducing noise in gated SPECT perfusion images while preserving accurate cardiac motion. The method is based on motion-compensated temporal smoothing using a deformable content-adaptive mesh to model cardiac motion. We use a new, fast method for initial mesh generation. This mesh is then deformed to track cardiac motion and smoothing is performed along motion tractories through the space-time coordinate system.

Mesh structure

 

Post filtered sequence

Results obtained after maximum-likelihood expectation-maximization reconstruction. “Original” denotes the phantom degraded by the system blur to represent an approximate best-case image for comparison." Spatial” denotes spatial smoothing only. “ST” denotes spatial-temporal smoothing without motion compensation. “MC-ST” denotes the proposed spatial-temporal smoothing with motion compensation achieved using a deformable mesh. “MC-ST” denotes the spatial-temporal smoothing with motion compensation achieved using a deformable mesh estimated on the original data. 

For more details send a request to: jovan [at] brankov [dot] com