ASIMPLE METHOD TO COMPUTE SIGNAL NOISE RATIO IN CT IMAGE

MY1204232
Abstract
The quality of CT image can be reliably measured by the signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio. A simple
numerical method is proposed to calculate the SNR ratio of OT image. The objective of this study is to
determine the image quality of the local CT imaging procedure, in terms of SNR as a function of the
number of projections. The test study used for this study was a solid homogeneous cylindrical
Perspex block of 12mm diameter. The sample always placed at the center of the sample holder. This
is 16 bit digital output from the data acquisition system. For each scanned data, tomographic
reconstruction was carried out using cone beam reconstruction software. Signal noise ratio (SNR)
was calculated from raw reconstructed images data. Simple algorithm was used to carry out the
basic statistical calculations and to generate the horizontal and vertical density plot.

Material and Method

Sample for this study was a solid homogeneous cylindrical Perspex block .CT scans were performed
using sample for 1° rotation step (360 projections) and 0*5“ rotation step(720 projections) using a
commercial X-ray micro-CT scanner. For each scanned data, CT image reconstruction was carried
out using cone beam reconstruction software . SNR was calculated from raw reconstructed images

SNR gives information about the relation between noise and contrast in the image. A common
definition of SNR is the ratio of mean to standard deviation of a signal or measurement. SNR

SNR-signallevel/noiseleveMJ/cr (1.0)

In the above equation, ju and a denote the mean value and the standard deviation of noise
respectively, where the noise statistics are calculated from noise image or background. Therefore,
SNR can define as following expression:

SNR««(M(phantom)- p(background)}/o(background) (1.1)

Industry imaging standard measure SNR in decibel (dB),then SNR can be define as

SNR=a20 log f{|j(phantom)« M(background)}/a(background)] (1.3)

Eleven different square zones over the constants CT images were marked as schematically shown in
Figure 1.

Figure 1: Schematically diagram showing the positions of rectangular block inside the constants density region of the CT
image.

© SEM R&D 2010

 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Figure 2(a) and Figure 2(b) show two CT images of typical plane through the sample, which was
scanned at same X-ray tube voltage setting. Figure 2(c) and Figure 2(d) shows the same order, a
profile plot of reconstructed densities along center of horizontal in both two images. Table 1 and Table
2 list the parameters and the calculated values of intensity and standard deviation for each region in
the two CT Images, Background vafues were calculated at outside sample in the images.

(a) (b)

(c) (d)
Figure 2:(a) CT image using 360 projections. (b)CT image using 720 projections
(c),(d) Corresponding 1D horizontal profile through the image (a) (b)

Table 1Calculated value of mean linear absorption coefficient and standard Table 2; t ^Calculated value of mean linear absorption coefficient and standard
deviation in Figure 2a deviation in Figure 2b
{360 projections) (720 projections)
Observation Upper jeff Lower nght Mean Standard SN R Lower nght Mean Standard SNH

No value value signal Deviation fdBl value signal Deviation [dB]

<x.y> (x.y) 1 .06*004 1 0 8 *0 0 3 (*.y) (x.y) 10 ^ 0 0 4 1 0 s+ 0 0 3

1 30 0 400 250 350 3.9 0 5 2 46976 5 6 ,52 2 2 1 30 0 400 2 5 0 350 3 45 88 2 8060 7 1 5 26 7

2 15 0 250 500:600 3.8 3 8 3 4 .734 3 5 6 .16 0 0 2 16 0 250 5 00 600 3 3573 2 .887 1 /0 9 2 18

a 30 0 400 7 5 0 850 39577 4 4934 56 8 0 17 3 30 0 400 7 5 0 850 33293 2 .76 83 7 0 ./ 5 12

4 500 600 15 0 .2 5 0 3 8983 4 .4 357 56.4850 4 500:600 1 5 0 2 50 3 4 3 16 2 8791 7 1.3 6 6 1

6 500:600 500:600 4.0298 5 0 8 11 5 7 .17 9 8 6 5 00 600 500 600 3 .5 10 6 2 7589 7 1 8287

6 500:600 800 900 3 948? 4 6 588 5 6 .7 5 16 6 5 00 600 800 900 3 2691 2 .9 118 70 3 18 3

7 7 50 850 260 360 3 8331 4 6998 66 1 3 1 6 7 7 5 0 850 2 50 350 3 2 84 3 2.8648 7 0 4 745

8 800 900 500 600 3 9375 4 4 397 66 6946 8 800 900 500-600 3 2391 2 .8 17 4 70 19 3 1

9 7 50 850 700.800 3 9364 4 3 3 19 56 6 836 9 750 :850 700 800 3 17 2 2 3 .10 8 5 69.7687

IQ 35 0 800 200 860 40251 4 6985 57 15 5 3 10 300560 2 5 0 800 3 4 4 32 3 0094 7 1 4347

’ Background 0 .17 7 4 2 16 3 8 'Background 0.0624 0 09 53

CONCLUSION
The results of the experiment (Figure 3) shown
that number projection increased the SNR of CT
image and the noise in CT image does have a
positional dependence, especially near the edge of
an object. It is observed that statistical properties
of the CT image can be further be improved either
by increasing number of projections or by taking
frame averaging during projection acquisition.
Figure 3:Calculated SNR inside each regions

© R&D Sem inar 2010