Cascaded Learning with Generative Adversarial Networks for Low Dose CT Denoising.

CT machines can be tuned in order to reduce the radiation dose used for imaging, yet reducing the radiation dose results in noisy images which are not suitable in clinical practice. In order for low dose CT to be used effectively in practice this issue must be addressed. Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) have been used widely in computer vision research and have proven themselves as a powerful tool for producing images with high perceptual quality. In this work we use a cascade of two neural networks, the first is a Generative Adversarial Network and the second is a Deep Convolutional Neural Network. The first network generates a denoised sample which is then fine-tuned by the second network via residue learning. We show that our cascaded method outperforms related works and more effectively reconstructs fine structural details in low contrast regions of the image.