Evaluation of three analytical methods for reconstruction from cone-beam data on a short circular scan

This article focuses on the problem of three- dimensional image reconstruction from cone-beam data acquired along a partial circular scan (short-scan): We present a detailed comparative evaluation of three state-of-the-art analytical algorithms suggested to achieve image reconstruction in this short-scan geometry. Our evaluation involves quantitative studies, such as the estimation of the contrast-to-noise performance, of the achievable spatial resolution and of the cone-beam artifact behavior of these reconstruction algorithms. In addition to that, we also provide a visual assessment of image quality by evaluating reconstructions of the FORBILD head phantom and a disc phantom. The numerical results presented in this paper were obtained using computer-simulated cone-beam data, while focusing on non-truncated projection data and geometry parameters that are similar to those of real medical C-arm devices.