Statistical microlocal analysis in two-dimensional X-ray CT

In many imaging applications it is important to assess how well the edges of the original object, $f$, are resolved in an image, $f^\text{rec}$, reconstructed from the measured data, $g$. In this paper we consider the case of image reconstruction in 2D X-ray Computed Tomography (CT). Let $f$ be a function describing the object being scanned, and $g=Rf + \eta$ be the Radon transform data in $\mathbb{R}^2$ corrupted by noise, $\eta$, and sampled with step size $\sim\epsilon$. Conventional microlocal analysis provides conditions for edge detectability based on the scanner geometry in the case of continuous, noiseless data (when $\eta = 0$), but does not account for noise and finite sampling step size. We develop a novel technique called Statistical Microlocal Analysis (SMA), which uses a statistical hypothesis testing framework to determine if an image edge (singularity) of $f$ is detectable from $f^\text{rec}$, and we quantify edge detectability using the statistical power of the test. Our approach is based on the theory we developed in previous work, which provides a characterization of $f^\text{rec}$ in local $O(\epsilon)$-size neighborhoods when $\eta \neq 0$. We derive a statistical test for the presence and direction of an edge microlocally given the magnitude of $\eta$ and data sampling step size. Using the properties of the null distribution of the test, we quantify the uncertainty of the edge magnitude and direction. We validate our theory using simulations, which show strong agreement between our predictions and experimental observations. Our work is not only of practical value, but of theoretical value as well. SMA is a natural extension of classical microlocal analysis theory which accounts for practical measurement imperfections, such as noise and finite step size, at the highest possible resolution compatible with the data.