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GPUs Helping To Lower CT Scan Radiation

Posted by kdawson on from the healthy-green-glow dept.

Gwmaw writes with news out of the University of California, San Diego, on the use of GPUs to process CT scan data. Faster processing of noisy data allows doctors to lower the total radiation dose needed for a scan. "A new approach to processing X-ray data could lower by a factor of ten or more the amount of radiation patients receive during cone beam CT scans... With only 20 to 40 total number of X-ray projections and 0.1 mAs per projection, the team achieved images clear enough for image-guided radiation therapy. The reconstruction time ranged from 77 to 130 seconds on an NVIDIA Tesla C1060 GPU card, depending on the number of projections — an estimated 100 times faster than similar iterative reconstruction approaches... Compared to the currently widely used scanning protocol of about 360 projections with 0.4 mAs per projection, [the researcher] says the new processing method resulted in 36 to 72 times less radiation exposure for patients."

6 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. Funny what drives the HPC market... by onionman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's remarkable that high performance computing is driven by video games. So, legions of PC enthusiasts and uber-gamers, I salute you for your contributions to technology! P0wn on.

    1. Re:Funny what drives the HPC market... by toastar · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Games are about the only thing that low-spec system can't do

      I take you never met someone who's job it is to solve the wave equation on very large datasets.

    2. Re:Funny what drives the HPC market... by Jeng · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Neither is Email or internet usage.

      I'm pretty sure the comment was for general usage, which is normally just Email and internet usage with some office apps thrown in. That is what a celeron with 2gigs of ram would be sufficient for.

      Yes, there are many many programs that are used in many fields that would not fit into the celeron with 2 gigs comment. I work in an office environment, we don't need massive processors, we don't need massive video cards, all we need is a low end processor with a good amount of ram.

      That is what I got from reading his comment, but apparently I am in the minority.

      --
      Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
    3. Re:Funny what drives the HPC market... by ljw1004 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That sounds fun. Is it available on Steam?

  2. CPU speed determines req. radiation amount? by iPhr0stByt3 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So, they pump in all that radiation because the processor is too slow? Doesn't seem right to me. I would think if they could have simply put another $10000 into the machine (adding CPU cycles) to lower the required radiation they would have done that a long time ago. So is the use of a GPU just a side effect of some new technology that allows the machine to estimate or predict the image with a lower radiation dose? That GPUs are more effecient for some operations is nothing new - what's the real breakthrough here?

  3. context by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    These patients are about to get RADIATION THERAPY. This CT scan will be delivered immediately before they are to receive a lethal radiation dose at the same location to kill their tumor. Reduction of dose in diagnostic CT (not cone-beam) is a much more valuable accomplishment.