Apparatus and method for medical image reconstruction using deep learning to improve image quality in position emission tomography (PET)
US11234666B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jan 25, 2019 |
| Grant date | Feb 1, 2022 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Aug 16, 2039 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06T2207/20084
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A deep learning (DL) convolution neural network (CNN) reduces noise in positron emission tomography (PET) images, and is trained using a range of noise levels for the low-quality images having high noise in the training dataset to produceuniform high-quality images having low noise, independently of the noise level of the input image. The DL-CNN network can be implemented by slicing a three-dimensional (3D) PET image into 2D slices along transaxial, coronal, and sagittal planes, using three separate 2D CNN networks for each respective plane, and averaging the outputs from these three separate 2D CNN networks. Feature-oriented training can be implemented by segmenting each training image into lesion and background regions, and, in the loss function, applying greater weights to voxels in the lesion region. Other medical images (e.g. MRI and CT) can be used to enhance resolution of the PET images and provide partial volume corrections.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.