Quantum compressed sensing tomographic reconstruction algorithm

Abstract: Computed tomography (CT) is a non-destructive technique for observing internal images and has proven highly valuable in medical diagnostics. Recent advances in quantum computing have begun to influence tomographic reconstruction techniques. The quantum tomographic reconstruction algorithm is less affected by artifacts or noise than classical algorithms by using the square function of the difference between pixels obtained by projecting CT images in quantum superposition states and pixels obtained from experimental data. In particular, by using quantum linear systems, a fast quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) model formulation for quantum tomographic reconstruction is possible. In this paper, we formulate the QUBO model for quantum compressed sensing tomographic reconstruction, which is a linear combination of the QUBO model for quantum tomographic reconstruction and the QUBO model for total variation in quantum superposition-state CT images. In our experiments, we used sinograms obtained by using the Radon transform of Shepp-Logan images and body CT images. We evaluate the performance of the new algorithm by reconstructing CT images using a hybrid solver with the QUBO model computed from each sinogram. The new algorithm was able to obtain a solution within 5 projection images for 30 by 30 image samples and within 6 projection images for 60 by 60 image samples, reconstructing error-free CT images. We anticipate that quantum compressed sensing tomographic reconstruction algorithms could significantly reduce the total radiation dose when quantum computing performance advances.