# Toward Better Optimization of Low-Dose CT Enhancement: A Critical Analysis of Loss Functions and Image Quality Assessment Metrics

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.00698 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.00698/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 20 of its 37 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 1 Nov 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 20 of 20)

- [The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metric](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.03924/) (2018)
- [Exploring CLIP for Assessing the Look and Feel of Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.12396/) (2022)
- [Image Quality Assessment: Unifying Structure and Texture Similarity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.07728/) (2020)
- [MANIQA: Multi-dimension Attention Network for No-Reference Image Quality Assessment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.08958/) (2022)
- [Blind Image Quality Assessment Using A Deep Bilinear Convolutional Neural Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.02665/) (2019)
- [Low-Dose CT with a Residual Encoder-Decoder Convolutional Neural Network (RED-CNN)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1702.00288/) (2017)
- [Low Dose CT Image Denoising Using a Generative Adversarial Network with Wasserstein Distance and Perceptual Loss](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.00961/) (2017)
- [ARNIQA: Learning Distortion Manifold for Image Quality Assessment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.14918/) (2023)
- [Attentions Help CNNs See Better: Attention-based Hybrid Image Quality Assessment Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.10485/) (2022)
- [DU-GAN: Generative Adversarial Networks with Dual-Domain U-Net Based Discriminators for Low-Dose CT Denoising](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.10772/) (2021)
- [CTformer: Convolution-free Token2Token Dilated Vision Transformer for Low-dose CT Denoising](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.13517/) (2022)
- [Shift-tolerant Perceptual Similarity Metric](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.13686/) (2022)
- [EDCNN: Edge enhancement-based Densely Connected Network with Compound Loss for Low-Dose CT Denoising](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.00139/) (2020)
- [ASCON: Anatomy-aware Supervised Contrastive Learning Framework for Low-dose CT Denoising](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.12225/) (2023)
- [Deep Learning for Low-Dose CT Denoising](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.10127/) (2019)
- [LIT-Former: Linking In-plane and Through-plane Transformers for Simultaneous CT Image Denoising and Deblurring](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.10630/) (2023)
- [DenoMamba: A fused state-space model for low-dose CT denoising](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.13094/) (2024)
- [Low-dose CT Denoising with Language-engaged Dual-space Alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.06128/) (2024)
- [Solving Low-Dose CT Reconstruction via GAN with Local Coherence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.13584/) (2023)
- [CT-Mamba: A Hybrid Convolutional State Space Model for Low-Dose CT Denoising](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.07930/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Low-dose CT (LDCT) imaging is widely used to reduce radiation exposure to mitigate high exposure side effects, but often suffers from noise and artifacts that affect diagnostic accuracy. To tackle this issue, deep learning models have been developed to enhance LDCT images. Various loss functions have been employed, including classical approaches such as Mean Square Error and adversarial losses, as well as customized loss functions(LFs) designed for specific architectures. Although these models achieve remarkable performance in terms of PSNR and SSIM, these metrics are limited in their ability to reflect perceptual quality, especially for medical images. In this paper, we focus on one of the most critical elements of DL-based architectures, namely the loss function. We conduct an objective analysis of the relevance of different loss functions for LDCT image quality enhancement and their consistency with image quality metrics. Our findings reveal inconsistencies between LFs and quality metrics, and highlight the need of consideration of image quality metrics when developing a new loss function for image quality enhancement.