MODULARIZED ADAPTIVE PROCESSING NEURAL NETWORK (MAP-NN) FOR LOW-DOSE CT

摘要

A system for enhancing a low-dose (LD) computed tomography (CT) image is described. The system includes a modularized adaptive processing neural network (MAP-NN) apparatus and a MAP module. The MAP-NN apparatus is configured to receive a LDCT image as input. The MAP-NN apparatus includes a number, T, trained neural network (NN) modules coupled in series. Each trained NN module is configured to generate a respective test intermediate output image based, at least in part, on a respective received test input image. Each test intermediate output image corresponds to an incrementally denoised respective received test input image. The MAP module is configured to identify an optimum mapping depth, D, based, at least in part, on a selected test intermediate output image, the selected test intermediate output image selected by a domain expert. The mapping depth, D, is less than or equal to the number, T.