Fully 3D Implementation of the End-to-end Deep Image Prior-based PET Image Reconstruction Using Block Iterative Algorithm

Deep image prior (DIP) has recently attracted attention owing to its unsupervised positron emission tomography (PET) image reconstruction, which does not require any prior training dataset. In this paper, we present the first attempt to implement an end-to-end DIP-based fully 3D PET image reconstruction method that incorporates a forward-projection model into a loss function. To implement a practical fully 3D PET image reconstruction, which could not be performed due to a graphics processing unit memory limitation, we modify the DIP optimization to block-iteration and sequentially learn an ordered sequence of block sinograms. Furthermore, the relative difference penalty (RDP) term was added to the loss function to enhance the quantitative PET image accuracy. We evaluated our proposed method using Monte Carlo simulation with [18F]FDG PET data of a human brain and a preclinical study on monkey brain [18F]FDG PET data. The proposed method was compared with the maximum-likelihood expectation maximization (EM), maximum-a-posterior EM with RDP, and hybrid DIP-based PET reconstruction methods. The simulation results showed that the proposed method improved the PET image quality by reducing statistical noise and preserved a contrast of brain structures and inserted tumor compared with other algorithms. In the preclinical experiment, finer structures and better contrast recovery were obtained by the proposed method. This indicated that the proposed method can produce high-quality images without a prior training dataset. Thus, the proposed method is a key enabling technology for the straightforward and practical implementation of end-to-end DIP-based fully 3D PET image reconstruction.