A Monte Carlo simulation study for feasibility of total variation (TV) noise reduction technique using digital mouse whole body (MOBY) phantom image

Although radiation dose based on X-ray source is becoming a concern, use of micro-computed tomography (m-CT) system continues to grow in diagnostic imaging. To address radiation dose concern in m-CT system, Monte Carlo simulation using Geant4 Application for Tomography Emission (GATE) tool and noise reduction technique have recently developed. Among these techniques, total variation (TV) noise reduction technique is well known to many researchers for X-ray imaging. Also, an important disadvantage of median filter and Wiener filter is low edge preservation compared with recently developed noise reduction methods Thus, the aim of this study was to design TV noise reduction technique based on L1-norm estimation with iterative method and compare to other techniques in m-CT system using GATE simulation. We used 4-dimension (4D) digital mouse whole body (MOBY) phantom and to clarify the feasibility of TV noise reduction technique in m-CT images, we compared the image performance using contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and coefficient of variation (COV). According to the results, the average for three image planes (coronal, sagittal and transverse) of CNR and COV of the TV noise reduction technique were 68.07 and 1.61%, respectively. In particular, the CNR and the COV difference between TV noise reduction technique and noisy image were maximum 5.28 and 2.89 times, respectively. In conclusion, the results of this study suggested that TV noise reduction technique can be achieved improved performance and the effect and feasibility of TV noise reduction technique for m-CT imaging can be investigated.