Performance study of the Temporal Resolution Improvement using Prior Image Constrained Compressed Sensing (TRI-PICCS)

A technique for temporal resolution improvement using prior image constrained compressed sensing (TRI-PICCS) in multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) cardiac imaging is proposed. In this work, the performance of TRI-PICCS was studied using a hybrid phantom which consists of realistic cardiac anatomy and objects moving with designed trajectories. Several simulated moving vessels were added to different locations in the heart. Different motion directions and simulated heart rates were investigated using half of the projection data of the short-scan angular range in TRI-PICCS. Different angular ranges of projection data were also investigated in TRI-PICCS to evaluate the highest achievable temporal resolution. The results showed that the temporal improvement of TRI-PICCS is independent of the locations of the moving objects and motion directions. The motion artifacts at 100 bmp simulated heart rate can be significantly improved using TRI-PICCS compared with conventional filtered back projection (FBP). The minimum angular range requirement of TRI-PICCS is about 90 degrees, corresponding to a temporal resolution improvement factor of 2.6 compared with the standard short-scan FBP reconstruction.