Progressive exploitation of multi-energy and photon counting modalities
Systems and methods for improving soft tissue contrast, characterizing tissue, classifying phenotype, stratifying risk, and performing multi-scale modeling aided by multiple energy or contrast excitation and evaluation are provided. The systems and methods can include single and multi-phase acquisitions and broad and local spectrum imaging to assess atherosclerotic plaque tissues in the vessel wall and perivascular space.
1 . A computerized method for determining and displaying mixed tissue types of microcalcification screen and dense calcification regions using radiological images, the method comprising:
i) performing, via a processor, multiple energy photon-counting K-edge subtraction on the radiological images;
ii) performing, via the processor, spectral image denoising with regularization models on the radiological images;
iii) subtracting, via the processor, i) from ii) to improve calcium detected in the radiological images by improving signal to noise ratio;
iv) performing, via the processor, segmentation on the improved calcium detected in the radiological images to determine the dense calcification regions and the microcalcification screen; and
v) transmitting, via the processor, the dense calcification regions, the microcalcification screen or both to a display.
2 . The computerized method of claim 1 wherein the radiological images are multiple energy spectral CT images.
3 . The computerized method of claim 1 wherein performing spectral image denoising further comprises decomposing linear attenuation coefficient maps into basis materials separable in spectral and space domains.
4 . The computerized method of claim 1 wherein performing segmentation includes region growing.
5 . The computerized method of claim 1 wherein performing segmentation includes applying morphological reconstruction.
6 . The computerized method of claim 1 wherein performing segmentation includes using a multiscale morphological gradient.
7 . The computerized method of claim 1 wherein performing segmentation includes using a top hat transformation or a bottom hat transformation.
8 . A system for determining and displaying mixed tissue types of microcalcification screen and dense calcification regions using radiological images, the system comprising:
a processor configured to:
i) perform multiple energy photon-counting K-edge subtraction on the radiological images;
ii) perform spectral image denoising with regularization models on the radiological images;
iii) subtract i) from ii) to improve calcium detected in the radiological images by improving signal to noise ratio;
iv) perform segmentation on the improved calcium detected in the radiological images to determine the dense calcification regions and the microcalcification screen; and
v) transmit the dense calcification regions, the microcalcification screen or both to a display.
9 . The system of claim 8 wherein the radiological images are multiple energy spectral CT images.
10 . The system of claim 8 wherein performing spectral image denoising further comprises decomposing linear attenuation coefficient maps into basis materials separable in spectral and space domains.
11 . The system of claim 8 wherein performing segmentation includes region growing.
12 . The system of claim 8 wherein performing segmentation includes applying morphological reconstruction.
13 . The system of claim 8 wherein performing segmentation includes using a multiscale morphological gradient.
14 . The system of claim 8 wherein performing segmentation includes using a top hat transformation or a bottom hat transformation.
15 . A non-transitory computer program product comprising instructions which, when the program is executed cause a processor to:
i) perform multiple energy photon-counting K-edge subtraction on the radiological images;
ii) perform spectral image denoising with regularization models on the radiological images;
iii) subtract i) from ii) to improve calcium detected in the radiological images by improving signal to noise ratio;
iv) perform segmentation on the improved calcium detected in the radiological images to determine a microcalcification screen and dense calcification regions; and
v) transmit the dense calcification regions, the microcalcification screen or both to a display.
16 . The non-transitory computer program product of claim 15 wherein the radiological images are multiple energy spectral CT images.
17 . The non-transitory computer program product of claim 15 wherein performing spectral image denoising further comprises decomposing linear attenuation coefficient maps into basis materials separable in spectral and space domains.
18 . The non-transitory computer program product of claim 15 wherein performing segmentation includes region growing.
19 . The non-transitory computer program product of claim 15 wherein performing segmentation includes applying morphological reconstruction.
20 . The non-transitory computer program product of claim 15 wherein performing segmentation includes using a multiscale morphological gradient.