Bouman Research Featured on AuntMinnie.com
Prof. Charles Bouman
An algorithm that was developed by Professor Charles Bouman of Purdue and Ken Sauer,in collaboration with Jean-Baptiste Thibault and Jiang Hsieh of GE Healthcare, has garnered international attention via AuntMinnie.com. The algorithm came out of research that was originally funded by NSF in the early 1990s.
Recent studies indicate that CT scanning with an adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR) algorithm offers better image quality at a lower radiation dose. But the new algorithm, called model-based iterative reconstruction (MBIR), could be even better than ASIR, according to a presentation at the recent International Society for Computed Tomography (ISCT) meeting in San Francisco.
The researchers claim that MBIR outperforms previous efforts to maximize the utility of low-dose CT exams, with excellent image quality and enhanced lesion conspicuity. Still, MBIR does have some drawbacks; image processing times are extremely slow. More than an hour is needed to process a typical 600-slice dataset. But processing speed will be resolved in the commercial version, says GE, which is working with the research consortium to speed MBIR's development. Physicists and radiologists working with MBIR are enthusiastic about its clinical potential to deliver sharper images with less radiation.