# ResPF: Residual Poisson Flow for Efficient and Physically Consistent Sparse-View CT Reconstruction

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.06400 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.06400/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 16 of its 46 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 6 Jun 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 16 of 16)

- [Elucidating the Design Space of Diffusion-Based Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.00364/) (2022)
- [SwinIR: Image Restoration Using Swin Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.10257/) (2021)
- [Solving Inverse Problems in Medical Imaging with Score-Based Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.08005/) (2021)
- [Deep Convolutional Neural Network for Inverse Problems in Imaging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.03679/) (2016)
- [Low-Dose CT with a Residual Encoder-Decoder Convolutional Neural Network (RED-CNN)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1702.00288/) (2017)
- [Decomposed Diffusion Sampler for Accelerating Large-Scale Inverse Problems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.05754/) (2023)
- [Poisson Flow Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.11178/) (2022)
- [Framing U-Net via Deep Convolutional Framelets: Application to Sparse-view CT](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.08333/) (2017)
- [PFGM++: Unlocking the Potential of Physics-Inspired Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.04265/) (2023)
- [MR Image Denoising and Super-Resolution Using Regularized Reverse Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.12621/) (2022)
- [Diffusion Probabilistic Priors for Zero-Shot Low-Dose CT Image Denoising](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.15887/) (2023)
- [SGD-Net: Efficient Model-Based Deep Learning with Theoretical Guarantees](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.09379/) (2021)
- [Physics-informed Score-based Diffusion Model for Limited-angle Reconstruction of Cardiac Computed Tomography](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.14770/) (2024)
- [JCCS-PFGM: A Novel Circle-Supervision based Poisson Flow Generative Model for Multiphase CECT Progressive Low-Dose Reconstruction with Joint Condition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.07824/) (2023)
- [PPFM: Image denoising in photon-counting CT using single-step posterior sampling Poisson flow generative models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.09754/) (2023)
- [Relaxed Linearized Algorithms for Faster X-Ray CT Image Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.04564/) (2015)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Sparse-view computed tomography (CT) is a practical solution to reduce radiation dose, but the resulting ill-posed inverse problem poses significant challenges for accurate image reconstruction. Although deep learning and diffusion-based methods have shown promising results, they often lack physical interpretability or suffer from high computational costs due to iterative sampling starting from random noise. Recent advances in generative modeling, particularly Poisson Flow Generative Models (PFGM), enable high-fidelity image synthesis by modeling the full data distribution. In this work, we propose Residual Poisson Flow (ResPF) Generative Models for efficient and accurate sparse-view CT reconstruction. Based on PFGM++, ResPF integrates conditional guidance from sparse measurements and employs a hijacking strategy to significantly reduce sampling cost by skipping redundant initial steps. However, skipping early stages can degrade reconstruction quality and introduce unrealistic structures. To address this, we embed a data-consistency into each iteration, ensuring fidelity to sparse-view measurements. Yet, PFGM sampling relies on a fixed ordinary differential equation (ODE) trajectory induced by electrostatic fields, which can be disrupted by step-wise data consistency, resulting in unstable or degraded reconstructions. Inspired by ResNet, we introduce a residual fusion module to linearly combine generative outputs with data-consistent reconstructions, effectively preserving trajectory continuity. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first application of Poisson flow models to sparse-view CT. Extensive experiments on synthetic and clinical datasets demonstrate that ResPF achieves superior reconstruction quality, faster inference, and stronger robustness compared to state-of-the-art iterative, learning-based, and diffusion models.