Abstract
Micro-CT angiography of small laboratory mammal organs visualizes vascular branches on a large range of scales, ranging from root-level branches (∼ 1 mm) to endarteriolar vessels (10-40 μm). Multiscale vascular tree segmentation is facilitated by the ability to set a single grayscale threshold value for vessels of all generation levels. Due to the non-ideal modulation transfer function (MTF) of the imaging system, object contrast varies significantly with scale, and the definition of a grayscale threshold for vessel segmentation becomes a problem. We found that performing a point spread function (PSF) deconvolution on the micro-CT projection images significantly reduces the thresholding problem in terms of restoring the smallest vessels' grayscale and delineation. The increased noise from performing a PSF deconvolution will not have a significant effect on the overall signal-to-noise ratio of the images. The PSF deconvolution was successful only when it accommodated the spatial variation of the PSF.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 720-727 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering |
| Volume | 5030 II |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2003 |
| Event | Medical Imaging 2003: Physics of Medical Imaging - San Diego, CA, United States Duration: Feb 16 2003 → Feb 18 2003 |
Keywords
- 3D micro-CT imaging
- MTF
- Multiscale vascular tree representation
- PSF
- Volume scanning
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Computer Science Applications
- Applied Mathematics
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering