Simultaneous use of Individual and Joint Regularization Terms in Compressive Sensing: Joint Reconstruction of Multi-Channel Multi-Contrast MRI Acquisitions

Purpose: A time-efficient strategy to acquire high-quality multi-contrast images is to reconstruct undersampled data with joint regularization terms that leverage common information across contrasts. However, these terms can cause leakage of uncommon features among contrasts, compromising diagnostic utility. The goal of this study is to develop a compressive sensing method for multi-channel multi-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that optimally utilizes shared information while preventing feature leakage. Theory: Joint regularization terms group sparsity and colour total variation are used to exploit common features across images while individual sparsity and total variation are also used to prevent leakage of distinct features across contrasts. The multi-channel multi-contrast reconstruction problem is solved via a fast algorithm based on Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers. Methods: The proposed method is compared against using only individual and only joint regularization terms in reconstruction. Comparisons were performed on single-channel simulated and multi-channel in-vivo datasets in terms of reconstruction quality and neuroradiologist reader scores. Results: The proposed method demonstrates rapid convergence and improved image quality for both simulated and in-vivo datasets. Furthermore, while reconstructions that solely use joint regularization terms are prone to leakage-of-features, the proposed method reliably avoids leakage via simultaneous use of joint and individual terms. Conclusion: The proposed compressive sensing method performs fast reconstruction of multi-channel multi-contrast MRI data with improved image quality. It offers reliability against feature leakage in joint reconstructions, thereby holding great promise for clinical use.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures. Submitted for possible publicatio

On the Low-Frequency Behavior of Vector Potential Integral Equations for Perfect Electrically Conducting Scatterers

Low-frequency behavior of vector potential integral equations (VPIEs) for perfect electrically conducting scatterers is investigated. Two equation sets are considered: The first set (VPIE-1) enforces the tangential component of the vector potential on the scatterer surface to be zero and uses the fundamental field relation on its normal component. The second set (VPIE-2) uses the same condition as VPIE-1 for the tangential component of the vector potential but enforces its divergence to be zero. In both sets, unknowns are the electric current and the normal component of the vector potential on the scatterer surface and are expanded using Rao-Wilton-Glisson (RWG) and pulse basis functions, respectively. To achieve a conforming discretization, RWG, scalar Buffa-Christiansen, and pulse testing functions are used. Theoretical and numerical analyses of the resulting matrix systems show that the electric current obtained by solving VPIE-1 has the wrong frequency scaling and is inaccurate at low frequencies

Mixed discretization of the time-domain MFIE at low frequencies

Solution of the magnetic field integral equation, which is obtained by the classical marching-on-in-time (MOT) scheme, becomes inaccurate when the time-step is large, i.e., under low-frequency excitation. It is shown here that the inaccuracy stems from the classical MOT scheme's failure to predict the correct scaling of the current's Helmholtz components for large time-steps. A recently proposed mixed discretization strategy is used to alleviate the inaccuracy problem by restoring the correct scaling of the current's Helmholtz components under low-frequency excitation

Joint reconstruction of multi-contrast images: compressive sensing reconstruction using both joint and individual regularization functions

In many clinical settings, multi-contrast images of a patient are acquired to maximize complementary information. With the underlying anatomy being the same, the mutual information in multi-contrast data can be exploited to improve image reconstruction, especially in accelerated acquisition schemes such as Compressive Sensing (CS). This study proposes a CS-reconstruction algorithm that uses four regularization functions; joint L1-sparsity and TV-regularization terms to exploit the mutual information, and individual L1-sparsity and TV-regularization terms to recover unique features in each image. The proposed method is shown to be robust against leakage-of-features across contrasts, and is demonstrated using simulations and in-vivo experiments

Survey of childhood empyema in Asia: Implications for detecting the unmeasured burden of culture-negative bacterial disease

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Parapneumonic empyema continues to be a disease of significant morbidity and mortality among children despite recent advances in medical management. To date, only a limited number of studies have assessed the burden of empyema in Asia.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We surveyed medical records of four representative large pediatric hospitals in China, Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam using <it>ICD</it>-10 diagnostic codes to identify children <16 years of age hospitalized with empyema or pleural effusion from 1995 to 2005. We also accessed microbiology records of cultured empyema and pleural effusion specimens to describe the trends in the epidemiology and microbiology of empyema.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>During the study period, we identified 1,379 children diagnosed with empyema or pleural effusion (China, n = 461; Korea, n = 134; Taiwan, n = 119; Vietnam, n = 665). Diagnoses of pleural effusion (n = 1,074) were 3.5 times more common than of empyema (n = 305), although the relative proportions of empyema and pleural effusion noted in hospital records varied widely between the four sites, most likely because of marked differences in coding practices. Although pleural effusions were reported more often than empyema, children with empyema were more likely to have a cultured pathogen. In addition, we found that median age and gender distribution of children with these conditions were similar across the four countries. Among 1,379 empyema and pleural effusion specimens, 401 (29%) were culture positive. <it>Staphylococcus aureus </it>(n = 126) was the most common organism isolated, followed by <it>Streptococcus pneumoniae </it>(n = 83), <it>Pseudomonas aeruginosa </it>(n = 37) and <it>Klebsiella </it>(n = 35) and <it>Acinetobacter </it>species (n = 34).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The age and gender distribution of empyema and pleural effusion in children in these countries are similar to the US and Western Europe. <it>S. pneumoniae </it>was the second leading bacterial cause of empyema and pleural effusion among Asian children. The high proportion of culture-negative specimens among patients with pleural effusion or empyema suggests that culture may not be a sufficiently sensitive diagnostic method to determine etiology in the majority of cases. Future prospective studies in different countries would benefit from standardized case definitions and coding practices for empyema. In addition, more sensitive diagnostic methods would improve detection of pathogens and could result in better prevention, treatment and outcomes of this severe disease.</p