1,421 research outputs found
Accelerated Cardiac Diffusion Tensor Imaging Using Joint Low-Rank and Sparsity Constraints
Objective: The purpose of this manuscript is to accelerate cardiac diffusion
tensor imaging (CDTI) by integrating low-rankness and compressed sensing.
Methods: Diffusion-weighted images exhibit both transform sparsity and
low-rankness. These properties can jointly be exploited to accelerate CDTI,
especially when a phase map is applied to correct for the phase inconsistency
across diffusion directions, thereby enhancing low-rankness. The proposed
method is evaluated both ex vivo and in vivo, and is compared to methods using
either a low-rank or sparsity constraint alone. Results: Compared to using a
low-rank or sparsity constraint alone, the proposed method preserves more
accurate helix angle features, the transmural continuum across the myocardium
wall, and mean diffusivity at higher acceleration, while yielding significantly
lower bias and higher intraclass correlation coefficient. Conclusion:
Low-rankness and compressed sensing together facilitate acceleration for both
ex vivo and in vivo CDTI, improving reconstruction accuracy compared to
employing either constraint alone. Significance: Compared to previous methods
for accelerating CDTI, the proposed method has the potential to reach higher
acceleration while preserving myofiber architecture features which may allow
more spatial coverage, higher spatial resolution and shorter temporal footprint
in the future.Comment: 11 pages, 16 figures, published on IEEE Transactions on Biomedical
Engineerin
Accelerating Magnetic Resonance Parametric Mapping Using Simultaneously Spatial Patch-based and Parametric Group-based Low-rank Tensors (SMART)
Quantitative magnetic resonance (MR) parametric mapping is a promising
approach for characterizing intrinsic tissue-dependent information. However,
long scan time significantly hinders its widespread applications. Recently,
low-rank tensor has been employed and demonstrated good performance in
accelerating MR parametricmapping. In this study, we propose a novel method
that uses spatial patch-based and parametric group-based low rank tensors
simultaneously (SMART) to reconstruct images from highly undersampled k-space
data. The spatial patch-based low-rank tensor exploits the high local and
nonlocal redundancies and similarities between the contrast images in
parametric mapping. The parametric group based low-rank tensor, which
integrates similar exponential behavior of the image signals, is jointly used
to enforce the multidimensional low-rankness in the reconstruction process. In
vivo brain datasets were used to demonstrate the validity of the proposed
method. Experimental results have demonstrated that the proposed method
achieves 11.7-fold and 13.21-fold accelerations in two-dimensional and
three-dimensional acquisitions, respectively, with more accurate reconstructed
images and maps than several state-of-the-art methods. Prospective
reconstruction results further demonstrate the capability of the SMART method
in accelerating MR quantitative imaging.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figure
Low-rank and sparse reconstruction in dynamic magnetic resonance imaging via proximal splitting methods
Dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) consists of collecting multiple MR images in time, resulting in a spatio-temporal signal. However, MRI intrinsically suffers from long acquisition times due to various constraints. This limits the full potential of dynamic MR imaging, such as obtaining high spatial and temporal resolutions which are crucial to observe dynamic phenomena. This dissertation addresses the problem of the reconstruction of dynamic MR images from a limited amount of samples arising from a nuclear magnetic resonance experiment. The term limited can be explained by the approach taken in this thesis to speed up scan time, which is based on violating the Nyquist criterion by skipping measurements that would be normally acquired in a standard MRI procedure. The resulting problem can be classified in the general framework of linear ill-posed inverse problems. This thesis shows how low-dimensional signal models, specifically lowrank and sparsity, can help in the reconstruction of dynamic images from partial measurements. The use of these models are justified by significant developments in signal recovery techniques from partial data that have emerged in recent years in signal processing. The major contributions of this thesis are the development and characterisation of fast and efficient computational tools using convex low-rank and sparse constraints via proximal gradient methods, the development and characterisation of a novel joint reconstructionāseparation method via the low-rank plus sparse matrix decomposition technique, and the development and characterisation of low-rank based recovery methods in the context of dynamic parallel MRI. Finally, an additional contribution of this thesis is to formulate the various MR image reconstruction problems in the context of convex optimisation to develop algorithms based on proximal splitting methods
Doctor of Philosophy
dissertationDiffusion tensor MRI (DT-MRI or DTI) has been proven useful for characterizing biological tissue microstructure, with the majority of DTI studies having been performed previously in the brain. Other studies have shown that changes in DTI parameters are detectable in the presence of cardiac pathology, recovery, and development, and provide insight into the microstructural mechanisms of these processes. However, the technical challenges of implementing cardiac DTI in vivo, including prohibitive scan times inherent to DTI and measuring small-scale diffusion in the beating heart, have limited its widespread usage. This research aims to address these technical challenges by: (1) formulating a model-based reconstruction algorithm to accurately estimate DTI parameters directly from fewer MRI measurements and (2) designing novel diffusion encoding MRI pulse sequences that compensate for the higher-order motion of the beating heart. The model-based reconstruction method was tested on undersampled DTI data and its performance was compared against other state-of-the-art reconstruction algorithms. Model-based reconstruction was shown to produce DTI parameter maps with less blurring and noise and to estimate global DTI parameters more accurately than alternative methods. Through numerical simulations and experimental demonstrations in live rats, higher-order motion compensated diffusion-encoding was shown to successfully eliminate signal loss due to motion, which in turn produced data of sufficient quality to accurately estimate DTI parameters, such as fiber helix angle. Ultimately, the model-based reconstruction and higher-order motion compensation methods were combined to characterize changes in the cardiac microstructure in a rat model with inducible arterial hypertension in order to demonstrate the ability of cardiac DTI to detect pathological changes in living myocardium
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MR Shuffling: Accelerated Single-Scan Multi-Contrast Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an attractive medical imaging modality as it is non-invasive and does not involve ionizing radiation. Routine clinical MRI exams obtain MR images corresponding to different soft tissue contrast by performing multiple scans. When two-dimensional (2D) imaging is used, these scans are often repeated in other scanning planes. As a result, the number of scans comprising an MRI exam leads to prohibitively long exam times as compared to other medical imaging modalities such as computed tomography. Many approaches have been designed to accelerate the MRI acquisition while maintaining diagnostic quality.One approach is to collect multiple measurements while the MRI signal is evolving due to relaxation. This enables a reduction in scan time, as fewer acquisition windows are needed to collect the same number of measurements. However, when the temporal aspect of the acquisition is left unmodeled, artifacts are likely to appear in the reconstruction. Most often, these artifacts manifest as image blurring. The effect depends on the acquisition parameters as well as the tissue relaxation itself, resulting in spatially varying blurring. The severity of the artifacts is directly related to the level of acceleration, and thus presents a tradeoff with scan time. The effect is amplified when imaging in three dimensions, severely limiting scan efficiency. Volumetric variants would be used if not for the blurring, as they are able to reconstruct images at isotropic resolution and support mutli-planar reformatting.Another established acceleration technique, called parallel imaging, takes advantage of spatially sensitive receive coil arrays to collect multiple MRI measurements in parallel. Thus, the acquisition is shortened, and the reconstruction uses the spatial sensitivity information to recover the image. More recently, methods have been developed that leverage image structure such as sparsity and low rank to reduce the required number of samples for a well-posed reconstruction. Compressed sensing and its low rank extensions use these concepts to acquire incoherent measurements below the Nyquist rate. These techniques are especially suited to MRI, as incoherent measurements can be easily achieved through pseudo-random under-sampling. As the mechanisms behind parallel imaging and compressed sensing are fundamentally different, they can be combined to achieve even higher acceleration.This dissertation proposes accelerated MRI acquisition and reconstruction techniques that account for the temporal dynamics of the MR signal. The methods build off of parallel imaging and compressed sensing to reduce scan time and flexibly model the temporal relaxation behavior. By randomly shuffling the sampling in the acquisition stage and imposing low rank constraints in the reconstruction stage, intrinsic physical parameters are modeled and their dynamics are recovered as multiple images of varying tissue contrast. Additionally, blurring artifacts are significantly reduced, as the temporal dynamics are accounted for in the reconstruction.This dissertation first introduces T2 Shuffling, a volumetric technique that reduces blurring and reconstructs multiple T2-weighted image contrasts from a single acquisition. The method is integrated into a clinical hospital environment and evaluated on patients. Next, this dissertation develops a fast and distributed reconstruction for T2 Shuffling that achieves clinically relevant processing time latency. Clinical validation results are shown comparing T2 Shuffling as a single-sequence alternative to conventional pediatric knee MRI. Based off the compelling results, a fast targeted knee MRI using T2 Shuffling is implemented, enabling same-day access to MRI at one-third the cost compared to the conventional exam. To date, over 2,400 T2 Shuffling patient scans have been performed.Continuing the theme of accelerated multi-contrast imaging, this dissertation extends the temporal signal model with T1-T2 Shuffling. Building off of T2 Shuffling, the new method additionally samples multiple points along the saturation recovery curve by varying the repetition time durations during the scan. Since the signal dynamics are governed by both T1 recovery and T2 relaxation, the reconstruction captures information about both intrinsic tissue parameters. As a result, multiple target synthetic contrast images are reconstructed, all from a single scan. Approaches for selecting the sequence parameters are provided, and the method is evaluated on in vivo brain imaging of a volunteer.Altogether, these methods comprise the theme of MR Shuffling, and may open new pathways toward fast clinical MRI
Pattern classification approaches for breast cancer identification via MRI: stateāofātheāart and vision for the future
Mining algorithms for Dynamic Contrast Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (DCEMRI)
of breast tissue are discussed. The algorithms are based on recent advances in multidimensional
signal processing and aim to advance current stateāofātheāart computerāaided detection
and analysis of breast tumours when these are observed at various states of development. The topics
discussed include image feature extraction, information fusion using radiomics, multiāparametric
computerāaided classification and diagnosis using information fusion of tensorial datasets as well
as Clifford algebra based classification approaches and convolutional neural network deep learning
methodologies. The discussion also extends to semiāsupervised deep learning and selfāsupervised
strategies as well as generative adversarial networks and algorithms using generated
confrontational learning approaches. In order to address the problem of weakly labelled tumour
images, generative adversarial deep learning strategies are considered for the classification of
different tumour types. The proposed data fusion approaches provide a novel Artificial Intelligence
(AI) based framework for more robust image registration that can potentially advance the early
identification of heterogeneous tumour types, even when the associated imaged organs are
registered as separate entities embedded in more complex geometric spaces. Finally, the general
structure of a highādimensional medical imaging analysis platform that is based on multiātask
detection and learning is proposed as a way forward. The proposed algorithm makes use of novel
loss functions that form the building blocks for a generated confrontation learning methodology
that can be used for tensorial DCEāMRI. Since some of the approaches discussed are also based on
timeālapse imaging, conclusions on the rate of proliferation of the disease can be made possible. The
proposed framework can potentially reduce the costs associated with the interpretation of medical
images by providing automated, faster and more consistent diagnosis
Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain in Moving Subjects. Application of Fetal, Neonatal and Adult Brain Studies
Imaging in the presence of subject motion has been an ongoing challenge for
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Motion makes MRI data inconsistent, causing
artifacts in conventional anatomical imaging as well as invalidating diffusion
tensor imaging (DTI) reconstruction. In this thesis some of the important issues
regarding the acquisition and reconstruction of anatomical and DTI imaging of
moving subjects are addressed; methods to achieve high resolution and high signalto-
noise ratio (SNR) volume data are proposed.
An approach has been developed that uses multiple overlapped dynamic single shot
slice by slice imaging combined with retrospective alignment and data fusion to
produce self consistent 3D volume images under subject motion. We term this
method as snapshot MRI with volume reconstruction or SVR. The SVR method
has been performed successfully for brain studies on subjects that cannot stay still,
and in some cases were moving substantially during scanning. For example, awake
neonates, deliberately moved adults and, especially, on fetuses, for which no
conventional high resolution 3D method is currently available. Fine structure of the
in-utero fetal brain is clearly revealed for the first time with substantially improved
SNR. The SVR method has been extended to correct motion artifacts from
conventional multi-slice sequences when the subject drifts in position during data
acquisition.
Besides anatomical imaging, the SVR method has also been further extended to
DTI reconstruction when there is subject motion. This has been validated
successfully from an adult who was deliberately moving and then applied to inutero
fetal brain imaging, which no conventional high resolution 3D method is
currently available. Excellent fetal brain 3D apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC)
maps in high resolution have been achieved for the first time as well as promising
fractional Anisotropy (FA) maps.
Pilot clinical studies using SVR reconstructed data to study fetal brain development
in-utero have been performed. Growth curves for the normally developing fetal
brain have been devised by the quantification of cerebral and cerebellar volumes as
well as some one dimensional measurements. A Verhulst model is proposed to
describe these growth curves, and this approach has achieved a correlation over
0.99 between the fitted model and actual data
Physics-based Reconstruction Methods for Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Conventional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is hampered by long scan times
and only qualitative image contrasts that prohibit a direct comparison between
different systems. To address these limitations, model-based reconstructions
explicitly model the physical laws that govern the MRI signal generation. By
formulating image reconstruction as an inverse problem, quantitative maps of
the underlying physical parameters can then be extracted directly from
efficiently acquired k-space signals without intermediate image reconstruction
-- addressing both shortcomings of conventional MRI at the same time. This
review will discuss basic concepts of model-based reconstructions and report
about our experience in developing several model-based methods over the last
decade using selected examples that are provided complete with data and code.Comment: 8 figures, review accepted to Philos. Trans. R. Soc.
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