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. 2023 Aug 1;13(4):353-362.
doi: 10.31661/jbpe.v0i0.2302-1599. eCollection 2023 Aug.

Impact of Noise Level on the Accuracy of Automated Measurement of CT Number Linearity on ACR CT and Computational Phantoms

Choirul Anam  1 , Riska Amilia  1 , Ariij Naufal  1 , Heri Sutanto  1 , Yanurita Dwihapsari  2 , Toshioh Fujibuchi  3 , Geoff Dougherty  4
Affiliations

Impact of Noise Level on the Accuracy of Automated Measurement of CT Number Linearity on ACR CT and Computational Phantoms

Choirul Anam et al. J Biomed Phys Eng. .

Abstract

Background: Methods for segmentation, i.e., Full-segmentation (FS) and Segmentation-rotation (SR), are proposed for maintaining Computed Tomography (CT) number linearity. However, their effectiveness has not yet been tested against noise.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the influence of noise on the accuracy of CT number linearity of the FS and SR methods on American College of Radiology (ACR) CT and computational phantoms.

Material and methods: This experimental study utilized two phantoms, ACR CT and computational phantoms. An ACR CT phantom was scanned by a 128-slice CT scanner with various tube currents from 80 to 200 mA to acquire various noises, with other constant parameters. The computational phantom was added by different Gaussian noises between 20 and 120 Hounsfield Units (HU). The CT number linearity was measured by the FS and SR methods, and the accuracy of CT number linearity was computed on two phantoms.

Results: The two methods successfully segmented both phantoms at low noise, i.e., less than 60 HU. However, segmentation and measurement of CT number linearity are not accurate on a computational phantom using the FS method for more than 60-HU noise. The SR method is still accurate up to 120 HU of noise.

Conclusion: The SR method outperformed the FS method to measure the CT number linearity due to its endurance in extreme noise.

Keywords: ACR CT Phantom; CT Number Linearity; Computational Phantom; Computed Tomography Scanner; Diagnostic Imaging; Image Quality Enhancement; Noise; Quality of Health Care.

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Conflict of interest statement

None

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The schematic of the American College of Radiology (ACR) Computed Tomography (CT) phantom.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The measurement steps of computed tomography number linearity with full segmentation method. a) original image of the computational phantom, b) segmenting the bone, c) segmenting the acrylic, d) segmenting the polyethylene, e) segmenting the air, f) rotating the phantom and polyethylene centroid to acquire the water coordinates, g) creating the region of interest (ROI) for each material, h) yielding the CT number linearity graph.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The graph of the correlation between tube current and image noise.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The results of segmentation on the American College of Radiology (ACR) Computed Tomography (CT) phantom with noise level 2.01 HU by (a) full-segmentation method and (b) segmentation-rotation method.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The results of segmentation on the computational phantom with the noise level of 120 HU by (a) full-segmentation method and (b) segmentation method.
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