Blur and noise corrupting Computed Tomography (CT) images can hide or distort small but important details, negatively affecting the consequent diagnosis. In this paper, we present a novel gradient-based Plug-and-Play (PnP) algorithm and we apply it to restore CT im- ages. The plugged denoiser is implemented as a deep Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) trained on the gradient domain (and not on the image one, as in state-of-the-art works) and it induces an external prior onto the restoration model. We further consider a hy- brid scheme which combines the gradient-based external denoiser with an internal one, obtained from the Total Variation functional. The proposed frameworks rely on the Half- Quadratic Splitting scheme and we prove a general fixed-point convergence theorem, un- der weak assumptions on both the denoisers. The experiments confirm the effectiveness of the proposed gradient-based approach in restoring blurred noisy CT images, both in simulated and real medical settings. The obtained performances outperform the achievements of many state-of-the-art methods

Pasquale Cascarano, Elena Loli Piccolomini, Elena Morotti, Andrea Sebastiani (2022). Plug-and-Play gradient-based denoisers applied to CT image enhancement. APPLIED MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTATION, 422, 1-15 [10.1016/j.amc.2022.126967].

Plug-and-Play gradient-based denoisers applied to CT image enhancement

Pasquale Cascarano;Elena Loli Piccolomini;Elena Morotti;Andrea Sebastiani
2022

Abstract

Blur and noise corrupting Computed Tomography (CT) images can hide or distort small but important details, negatively affecting the consequent diagnosis. In this paper, we present a novel gradient-based Plug-and-Play (PnP) algorithm and we apply it to restore CT im- ages. The plugged denoiser is implemented as a deep Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) trained on the gradient domain (and not on the image one, as in state-of-the-art works) and it induces an external prior onto the restoration model. We further consider a hy- brid scheme which combines the gradient-based external denoiser with an internal one, obtained from the Total Variation functional. The proposed frameworks rely on the Half- Quadratic Splitting scheme and we prove a general fixed-point convergence theorem, un- der weak assumptions on both the denoisers. The experiments confirm the effectiveness of the proposed gradient-based approach in restoring blurred noisy CT images, both in simulated and real medical settings. The obtained performances outperform the achievements of many state-of-the-art methods
2022
Pasquale Cascarano, Elena Loli Piccolomini, Elena Morotti, Andrea Sebastiani (2022). Plug-and-Play gradient-based denoisers applied to CT image enhancement. APPLIED MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTATION, 422, 1-15 [10.1016/j.amc.2022.126967].
Pasquale Cascarano; Elena Loli Piccolomini; Elena Morotti; Andrea Sebastiani
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11585/903602
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