Implementation of a spiral CT backprojection algorithm on the Cell Broadband Engine processor

Abstract

Over the last few decades, the medical imaging community has passionately debated over different approaches to implement reconstruction algorithms for Spiral CT. Numerous alternatives have been proposed. Whether they are approximate, exact or, iterative, those implementations generally include a backprojection step. Specialized compute platforms have been designed to perform this compute-intensive algorithm within a timeframe compatible with hospitalworkflow requirements. Solving the performance problem in a cost-effective way had driven designers to use a combination of digital signal processor (DSP) chips, general-purpose processors, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). The Cell processor by IBM offers an interesting alternative for implementing the backprojection, especially since it offers a good level of parallelism and vast I/O capabilities. In this paper, we consider the implementation of a straight backprojection algorithm on the Cell processor to design a costeffective system that matches the performance requirements of clinically deployed systems. The effects on performance of system parameters such as pitch and detector size are also analyzed to determine the ideal system size for modern CT scanners.