CT-Less Attenuation Correction Using Multiview Ensemble Conditional Diffusion Model on High-Resolution Uncorrected PET Images

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Main Authors: St-Georges, Alexandre, Richard, Gabriel, Toussaint, Maxime, Thibaudeau, Christian, Auger, Etienne, Croteau, Étienne, Cunnane, Stephen, Lecomte, Roger, Michaud, Jean-Baptiste
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author St-Georges, Alexandre
Richard, Gabriel
Toussaint, Maxime
Thibaudeau, Christian
Auger, Etienne
Croteau, Étienne
Cunnane, Stephen
Lecomte, Roger
Michaud, Jean-Baptiste
author_facet St-Georges, Alexandre
Richard, Gabriel
Toussaint, Maxime
Thibaudeau, Christian
Auger, Etienne
Croteau, Étienne
Cunnane, Stephen
Lecomte, Roger
Michaud, Jean-Baptiste
contents Accurate quantification in positron emission tomography (PET) is essential for accurate diagnostic results and effective treatment tracking. A major issue encountered in PET imaging is attenuation. Attenuation refers to the diminution of photon detected as they traverse biological tissues before reaching detectors. When such corrections are absent or inadequate, this signal degradation can introduce inaccurate quantification, making it difficult to differentiate benign from malignant conditions, and can potentially lead to misdiagnosis. Typically, this correction is done with co-computed Computed Tomography (CT) imaging to obtain structural data for calculating photon attenuation across the body. However, this methodology subjects patients to extra ionizing radiation exposure, suffers from potential spatial misregistration between PET/CT imaging sequences, and demands costly equipment infrastructure. Emerging advances in neural network architectures present an alternative approach via synthetic CT image synthesis. Our investigation reveals that Conditional Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models (DDPMs) can generate high quality CT images from non attenuation corrected PET images in order to correct attenuation. By utilizing all three orthogonal views from non-attenuation-corrected PET images, the DDPM approach combined with ensemble voting generates higher quality pseudo-CT images with reduced artifacts and improved slice-to-slice consistency. Results from a study of 159 head scans acquired with the Siemens Biograph Vision PET/CT scanner demonstrate both qualitative and quantitative improvements in pseudo-CT generation. The method achieved a mean absolute error of 32 $\pm$ 10.4 HU on the CT images and an average error of (1.48 $\pm$ 0.68)\% across all regions of interest when comparing PET images reconstructed using the attenuation map of the generated pseudo-CT versus the true CT.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_24805
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle CT-Less Attenuation Correction Using Multiview Ensemble Conditional Diffusion Model on High-Resolution Uncorrected PET Images
St-Georges, Alexandre
Richard, Gabriel
Toussaint, Maxime
Thibaudeau, Christian
Auger, Etienne
Croteau, Étienne
Cunnane, Stephen
Lecomte, Roger
Michaud, Jean-Baptiste
Quantitative Methods
Artificial Intelligence
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Accurate quantification in positron emission tomography (PET) is essential for accurate diagnostic results and effective treatment tracking. A major issue encountered in PET imaging is attenuation. Attenuation refers to the diminution of photon detected as they traverse biological tissues before reaching detectors. When such corrections are absent or inadequate, this signal degradation can introduce inaccurate quantification, making it difficult to differentiate benign from malignant conditions, and can potentially lead to misdiagnosis. Typically, this correction is done with co-computed Computed Tomography (CT) imaging to obtain structural data for calculating photon attenuation across the body. However, this methodology subjects patients to extra ionizing radiation exposure, suffers from potential spatial misregistration between PET/CT imaging sequences, and demands costly equipment infrastructure. Emerging advances in neural network architectures present an alternative approach via synthetic CT image synthesis. Our investigation reveals that Conditional Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models (DDPMs) can generate high quality CT images from non attenuation corrected PET images in order to correct attenuation. By utilizing all three orthogonal views from non-attenuation-corrected PET images, the DDPM approach combined with ensemble voting generates higher quality pseudo-CT images with reduced artifacts and improved slice-to-slice consistency. Results from a study of 159 head scans acquired with the Siemens Biograph Vision PET/CT scanner demonstrate both qualitative and quantitative improvements in pseudo-CT generation. The method achieved a mean absolute error of 32 $\pm$ 10.4 HU on the CT images and an average error of (1.48 $\pm$ 0.68)\% across all regions of interest when comparing PET images reconstructed using the attenuation map of the generated pseudo-CT versus the true CT.
title CT-Less Attenuation Correction Using Multiview Ensemble Conditional Diffusion Model on High-Resolution Uncorrected PET Images
topic Quantitative Methods
Artificial Intelligence
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.24805