Multi-segment spectral reconstruction via zero-value set prior

Most scanning schemes of multi-energy computed tomography (MECT) require multiple sets of full-scan measurements under different x-ray spectra, which limits the application of MECT with incomplete scan. To handle this problem, a flexible MECT scanning strategy is proposed in this paper, which divides one half scan into three curves. Also, a novel MECT reconstruction algorithm is developed to relax the requirement of data acquisition of MECT. For MECT, gradient images of CT images at different energies ideally share the same position of zero-value set (Pos-OS) for the same object. Based on this observation, the characteristics of limited-angle artifacts is first explored, and it is found that the limited-angle artifacts in the image domain are closely related to the angle trajectory of the scan. Inspired by this discovery, the Pos-OS of the gradient image from the fusion CT image is extracted, and it is incorporated as prior knowledge into the TV minimization model in the form of equality constraints. The alternating direction method is exploited to solve the improved optimization model iteratively. Based on this, the proposed algorithm is derived to eliminate the limited angle artifacts in the image domain.The experimental results show that the proposed method achieves higher reconstruction quality under the designed scanning configuration than other methods in the literature. (paper)