CBCT Image Quality Assessment and Quantification

Programme

COMET

Project coordination

Austrian Center for Medical Innovation and Technology (ACMIT)

Project partners

• Danube Private University (DPU)
• Medical University of Vienna, Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering

Researchers involved at DPU 

• Ass.-Prof. Dr. Sepideh Hatamikia 
• Poorya MohammadiNassab
• Clemens Karner

Abstract

The quality of medical images is a critical factor, as it directly affects the representation of anatomical details and, consequently, diagnostic accuracy. In X-ray–based modalities such as computed tomography (CT) and cone-beam CT (CBCT), there is an inherent trade-off between radiation dose and image quality. In this context, image quality assessment (IQA) plays a key role in enabling optimized dose protocols while maintaining clinically sufficient image quality.

Traditionally, image quality is assessed manually by expert radiologists and clinicians, providing evaluations that are closely aligned with clinical relevance. However, this approach has several limitations, including inter- and intra-observer variability—particularly in complex cases—as well as being time-consuming, subjective, and costly. These limitations highlight the need for standardized, objective, and reproducible quantitative IQA metrics that can generate reliable image quality scores with strong correlation to human expert perception.

This project aims to investigate and identify appropriate quantitative image quality metrics that are suitable for assessing CT and CBCT images under varying acquisition conditions and dose levels. In particular, the focus will be on identifying and validating metrics that are sensitive to clinically relevant features, such as noise, contrast, spatial resolution, and structural fidelity.