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The Empirical Effect of Gaussian Noise in Undersampled MRI Reconstruction.

ABSTRACT: In Fourier-based medical imaging, sampling below the Nyquist rate results in an underdetermined system, in which a linear reconstruction will exhibit artifacts. Another consequence is lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) because of fewer acquired measurements. Even if one could obtain information to perfectly disambiguate the underdetermined system, the reconstructed image could still have lower image quality than a corresponding fully sampled acquisition because of reduced measurement time. The coupled effects of low SNR and underdetermined system during reconstruction makes it difficult to isolate the impact of low SNR on image quality. To this end, we present an image quality prediction process that reconstructs fully sampled, fully determined data with noise added to simulate the SNR loss induced by a given undersampling pattern. The resulting prediction image empirically shows the effects of noise in undersampled image reconstruction without any effect from an underdetermined system. We discuss how our image quality prediction process simulates the distribution of noise for a given undersampling pattern, including variable density sampling that produces colored noise in the measurement data. An interesting consequence of our prediction model is that recovery from an underdetermined nonuniform sampling is equivalent to a weighted least squares optimization that accounts for heterogeneous noise levels across measurements. Through experiments with synthetic and in vivo datasets, we demonstrate the efficacy of the image quality prediction process and show that it provides a better estimation of reconstruction image quality than the corresponding fully sampled reference image.

SUBMITTER: Virtue P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5906070 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:This work characterizes the effect of lipid and noise signals on muscle diffusion parameter estimation in several conventional and non-Gaussian models, the ultimate objectives being to characterize popular fat suppression approaches for human muscle diffusion studies, to provide simulations to inform experimental work and to report normative non-Gaussian parameter values. The models investigated in this work were the Gaussian monoexponential and intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) models, and the non-Gaussian kurtosis and stretched exponential models. These were evaluated via simulations, and in vitro and in vivo experiments. Simulations were performed using literature input values, modeling fat contamination as an additive baseline to data, whereas phantom studies used a phantom containing aliphatic and olefinic fats and muscle-like gel. Human imaging was performed in the hamstring muscles of 10 volunteers. Diffusion-weighted imaging was applied with spectral attenuated inversion recovery (SPAIR), slice-select gradient reversal and water-specific excitation fat suppression, alone and in combination. Measurement bias (accuracy) and dispersion (precision) were evaluated, together with intra- and inter-scan repeatability. Simulations indicated that noise in magnitude images resulted in <6% bias in diffusion coefficients and non-Gaussian parameters (?, K), whereas baseline fitting minimized fat bias for all models, except IVIM. In vivo, popular SPAIR fat suppression proved inadequate for accurate parameter estimation, producing non-physiological parameter estimates without baseline fitting and large biases when it was used. Combining all three fat suppression techniques and fitting data with a baseline offset gave the best results of all the methods studied for both Gaussian diffusion and, overall, for non-Gaussian diffusion. It produced consistent parameter estimates for all models, except IVIM, and highlighted non-Gaussian behavior perpendicular to muscle fibers (? ~ 0.95, K ~ 3.1). These results show that effective fat suppression is crucial for accurate measurement of non-Gaussian diffusion parameters, and will be an essential component of quantitative studies of human muscle quality.

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The Empirical Effect of Gaussian Noise in Undersampled MRI Reconstruction.

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