Development of a noise reduction filter algorithm for pediatric body images in multidetector CT

Recently, several types of post-processing image filter which was designed to reduce noise allowing a corresponding dose reduction in CT images have been proposed and these were reported to be useful for noise reduction of CT images of adult patients. However, these have not been reported on adaptation for pediatric patients. Because they are not very effective with small (<20 cm) display fields of view, they could not be used for pediatric (e.g., premature babies and infants) body CT images. In order to solve this restriction, we have developed a new noise reduction filter algorithm which can be applicable for pediatric body CT images. This algorithm is based on a three-dimensional post processing, in which output pixel values are calculated by multi-directional, one-dimensional median filters on original volumetric datasets. The processed directions were selected except in in-plane (axial plane) direction, and consequently the in-plane spatial resolution was not affected by the filter. Also, in other directions, the spatial resolutions including slice thickness were almost maintained due to a characteristic of non-linear filtering of the median filter. From the results of phantom studies, the proposed algorithm could reduce standard deviation values as a noise index by up to 30% without affecting the spatial resolution of all directions, and therefore, contrast-to-noise ratio was improved by up to 30%. This newly developed filter algorithm will be useful for the diagnosis and radiation dose reduction of pediatric body CT images.