Image quality improved virtual non-contrast images generated by a spectral computed tomography (ct) scanner

A spectral computed tomography imaging method, comprising:

• emitting x-ray radiation;
• detecting the x-ray radiation and generating contrast-enhanced multi-energy spectral projection data;
• storing a virtual non-contrast image enhancing module that includes computer executable instructions including a neural network;
• and
• training the neural network with training contrast-enhanced multi-energy spectral projection data generated from a spectral scan and training non-contrast-enhanced images generated from a non-contrast-enhanced scan to produce image quality enhanced virtual non-contrast images.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium encoded with computer readable instructions, which, when executed by a processor of a computing system, cause the processor to:

• emit x-ray radiation with a radiation source;
• detect emitted x-ray radiation with a detector array and generate a contrast-enhanced spectral projection data;
• train a neural network trained to produce image quality enhanced virtual non-contrast images, wherein the neural network is trained with training contrast-enhanced multi-energy spectral projection data generated from a spectral scan and training non-contrast-enhanced images generated from a non-contrast-enhanced scan;
• and
• process the spectral data with the trained neural network to produce the image quality enhanced virtual non-contrast images.