Introduction: a brief overview of iterative algorithms in X-ray computed tomography.

This paper presents a brief overview of some basic iterative algorithms, and more sophisticated methods are presented in the research papers in this issue. A range of algebraic iterative algorithms are covered here including ART, SART and OS-SART. A major limitation of the traditional iterative methods is their computational time. The Krylov subspace based methods such as the conjugate gradients (CG) algorithm and its variants can be used to solve linear systems of equations arising from large-scale CT with possible implementation using modern high-performance computing tools. The overall aim of this theme issue is to stimulate international efforts to develop the next generation of X-ray computed tomography (CT) image reconstruction software.