Computed tomography (CT) combined with deep learning (DL) has recently shown great potential in biomedical imaging. Complex DL models with varying architectures inspired by the human brain are improving imaging software and aiding diagnosis. However, the accuracy of these DL models heavily relies on the datasets used for training, which often contain low-quality CT images from low-dose CT (LDCT) scans. Moreover, in contrast to the neural architecture of the human brain, DL models today are dense and complex, resulting in a significant computational footprint. Therefore, in this work, we propose sparse optimizations to minimize the complexity of the DL models and leverage architecture-aware optimization to reduce the total training time of these DL models. To that end, we leverage a DL model called DenseNet and Deconvolution Network (DDNet). The model enhances LDCT chest images into high-quality (HQ) ones but requires many hours to train. To further improve the quality of final HQ images, we first modified DDNet's architecture with a more robust multi-level VGG (ML-VGG) loss function to achieve state-of-the-art CT image enhancement. However, improving the loss function results in increased computational cost. Hence, we introduce sparse optimizations to reduce the complexity of the improved DL model and then propose architecture-aware optimizations to efficiently utilize the underlying computing hardware to reduce the overall training time. Finally, we evaluate our techniques for performance and accuracy using state-of-the-art hardware resources. / Master of Science / Deep learning-based (DL) techniques that leverage computed tomography (CT) are becoming omnipresent in diagnosing diseases and abnormalities associated with different parts of the human body. However, their diagnostic accuracy is directly proportional to the quality of the CT images used in training the DL models, which is majorly governed by the radiation dose of the X-ray in the CT scanner. To improve the quality of low-dose CT (LDCT) images, DL-based techniques show promising improvements. However, these techniques require substantial computational resources and time to train the DL models. Therefore, in this work, we incorporate algorithmic techniques inspired by sparse neural architecture of the human brain to reduce the complexity of such DL models. To that end, we leverage a DL model called DenseNet and Deconvolution Network (DDNet) that enhances the quality of CT images generated by low X-ray dosage into high-quality CT images. However, due to its architecture, it takes hours to train DDNet on state-of-the-art hardware resources.
Hence, in this work, we propose techniques that efficiently utilize the hardware resources and reduce the time required to train DDNet. We evaluate the efficacy of our techniques on modern supercomputers in terms of speed and accuracy.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/118268 |
| Date | 04 March 2024 |
| Creators | Chaturvedi, Ayush |
| Contributors | Electrical and Computer Engineering, Feng, Wu-chun, Jones, Creed F. III, Min, Chang Woo |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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