Enhancing Super-Resolution Networks through Realistic Thick-Slice CT Simulation

This study aims to develop and evaluate an innovative simulation algorithm for generating thick-slice CT images that closely resemble actual images in the AAPM-Mayo's 2016 Low Dose CT Grand Challenge dataset. The proposed method was evaluated using Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) metrics, with the hypothesis that our simulation would produce images more congruent with their real counterparts. Our proposed method demonstrated substantial enhancements in terms of both PSNR and RMSE over other simulation methods. The highest PSNR values were obtained with the proposed method, yielding 49.7369 $\pm$ 2.5223 and 48.5801 $\pm$ 7.3271 for D45 and B30 reconstruction kernels, respectively. The proposed method also registered the lowest RMSE with values of 0.0068 $\pm$ 0.0020 and 0.0108 $\pm$ 0.0099 for D45 and B30, respectively, indicating a distribution more closely aligned with the authentic thick-slice image. Further validation of the proposed simulation algorithm was conducted using the TCIA LDCT-and-Projection-data dataset. The generated images were then leveraged to train four distinct super-resolution (SR) models, which were subsequently evaluated using the real thick-slice images from the 2016 Low Dose CT Grand Challenge dataset. When trained with data produced by our novel algorithm, all four SR models exhibited enhanced performance.