Technical Note: Noise models for virtual clinical trials of digital breast tomosynthesis
(2019) In Medical Physics 46(6). p.2683-2689- Abstract
- Purpose: To investigate the use of an affine-variance noise model, with correlated quantum noise and spatially dependent quantum gain, for the simulation of noise in virtual clinical trials (VCT) of digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT).
Methods: Two distinct technologies were considered: an amorphous-selenium (a-Se) detector with direct conversion and a thallium-doped cesium iodide (CsI(Tl)) detector with indirect conversion. A VCT framework was used to generate noise-free projections of a uniform three-dimensional simulated phantom, whose geometry and absorption match those of a polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) uniform physical phantom. The noise model was then used to generate noisy observations from the simulated noise-free data, while... (More) - Purpose: To investigate the use of an affine-variance noise model, with correlated quantum noise and spatially dependent quantum gain, for the simulation of noise in virtual clinical trials (VCT) of digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT).
Methods: Two distinct technologies were considered: an amorphous-selenium (a-Se) detector with direct conversion and a thallium-doped cesium iodide (CsI(Tl)) detector with indirect conversion. A VCT framework was used to generate noise-free projections of a uniform three-dimensional simulated phantom, whose geometry and absorption match those of a polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) uniform physical phantom. The noise model was then used to generate noisy observations from the simulated noise-free data, while two clinically available DBT units were used to acquire projections of the PMMA physical phantom. Real and simulated projections were then compared using the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and normalized noise power spectrum (NNPS).
Results: Simulated images reported errors smaller than 4.4% and 7.0% in terms of SNR and NNPS, respectively. These errors are within the expected variation between two clinical units of the same model. The errors increase to 65.8% if uncorrelated models are adopted for the simulation of systems featuring indirect detection. The assumption of spatially independent quantum gain generates errors of 11.2%.
Conclusions: The investigated noise model can be used to accurately reproduce the noise found in clinical DBT. The assumption of uncorrelated noise may be adopted if the system features a direct detector with minimal pixel crosstalk.
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https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/4d438a1e-4f48-4eb7-a17a-b19fd0029a68
- author
- Borges, L R ; Barufaldi, B ; Caron, R F ; Bakic, Predrag LU ; Foi, A ; Maidment, A D A and Vieira, M A C
- publishing date
- 2019
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- in
- Medical Physics
- volume
- 46
- issue
- 6
- pages
- 2683 - 2689
- publisher
- American Association of Physicists in Medicine
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:30972769
- scopus:85065342539
- ISSN
- 0094-2405
- DOI
- 10.1002/mp.13534
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- 4d438a1e-4f48-4eb7-a17a-b19fd0029a68
- date added to LUP
- 2020-11-07 12:48:43
- date last changed
- 2022-04-19 01:42:36
@article{4d438a1e-4f48-4eb7-a17a-b19fd0029a68,
abstract = {{Purpose: To investigate the use of an affine-variance noise model, with correlated quantum noise and spatially dependent quantum gain, for the simulation of noise in virtual clinical trials (VCT) of digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT).<br/>Methods: Two distinct technologies were considered: an amorphous-selenium (a-Se) detector with direct conversion and a thallium-doped cesium iodide (CsI(Tl)) detector with indirect conversion. A VCT framework was used to generate noise-free projections of a uniform three-dimensional simulated phantom, whose geometry and absorption match those of a polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) uniform physical phantom. The noise model was then used to generate noisy observations from the simulated noise-free data, while two clinically available DBT units were used to acquire projections of the PMMA physical phantom. Real and simulated projections were then compared using the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and normalized noise power spectrum (NNPS).<br/>Results: Simulated images reported errors smaller than 4.4% and 7.0% in terms of SNR and NNPS, respectively. These errors are within the expected variation between two clinical units of the same model. The errors increase to 65.8% if uncorrelated models are adopted for the simulation of systems featuring indirect detection. The assumption of spatially independent quantum gain generates errors of 11.2%.<br/>Conclusions: The investigated noise model can be used to accurately reproduce the noise found in clinical DBT. The assumption of uncorrelated noise may be adopted if the system features a direct detector with minimal pixel crosstalk.<br/>}},
author = {{Borges, L R and Barufaldi, B and Caron, R F and Bakic, Predrag and Foi, A and Maidment, A D A and Vieira, M A C}},
issn = {{0094-2405}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{6}},
pages = {{2683--2689}},
publisher = {{American Association of Physicists in Medicine}},
series = {{Medical Physics}},
title = {{Technical Note: Noise models for virtual clinical trials of digital breast tomosynthesis}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mp.13534}},
doi = {{10.1002/mp.13534}},
volume = {{46}},
year = {{2019}},
}