Computed tomography medical image reconstruction on affordable equipment by using out-of-core techniques

Abstract: As Computed Tomography (CT) scans are an essential medical test, many techniques have been proposed to reconstruct high-quality images using a smaller amount of radiation. One approach is to employ algebraic factorization methods to reconstruct the images, using fewer views than the traditional analytical methods. However, their main drawback is the high computational cost and hence the time needed to obtain the images, which is critical in the daily clinical practice. For this reason, faster methods for solving this problem are required. In this paper, we propose a new reconstruction method based on the QR factorization that is very efficient on affordable equipment (standard multicore processors and standard Solid-State Drives) by using out-of-core techniques. Combining both affordable hardware and the new software, we can boost the performance of the reconstructions and implement a reliable and competitive method that reconstructs high-quality CT images quickly.