The CT Research Group, under the direction of Guang-Hong Chen, Ph.D. in Imaging Sciences, just received a $1.84 million grant from the National Cancer Institute for their work with ultra-low radiation dose CT imaging. Dr. Chen and Dr. Perry Pickhardt of the Abdominal Imaging Section will be co-principal investigators on this project.
Radiation dosage in CT procedures has received considerable attention due to the increase in clinical use in recent decades. One study in particular, showed that there was a large increase in radiation exposure from CT, MRI, and PET scans between 1996 and 2010 (Smith-Bindman, M.D., et. al.). This project seeks to optimize and evaluate an image reconstruction algorithm developed by Dr. Chen and his team, Prior Image Constrained Compressed Sensing (PICCS). This algorithm hopes to reduce radiation dosage by 70%-90% of current levels, without compromising diagnostic accuracy in CT.
Congratulations! We look forward to more updates from this project.