Reduced aliasing artifacts using shaking projection k-space sampling trajectory

Radial imaging techniques, such as projection-reconstruction （PR）, are used in magnetic resonance imaging （MRI） for dynamic imaging, angiography, and short-T2 imaging. They are less sensitive to flow and motion artifacts, and support fast imaging with short echo times. However, aliasing and streaking artifacts are two main sources which degrade radial imaging quality. For a given fixed number of k-space projections, data distributions along radial and angular directions will influence the level of aliasing and streaking artifacts. Conventional radial k-space sampling trajectory introduces an aliasing artifact at the first principal ring of point spread function （PSF）. In this paper, a shaking projection （SP） k-space sampling trajectory was proposed to reduce aliasing artifacts in MR images. SP sampling trajectory shifts the projection alternately along the k-space center, which separates k-space data in the azimuthal direction. Simulations based on conventional and SP sampling trajectories were compared with the same number projections. A significant reduction of aliasing artifacts was observed using the SP sampling trajectory. These two trajectories were also compared with different sampling frequencies. ASP trajectory has the same aliasing character when using half sampling frequency （or half data） for reconstruction. SNR comparisons with different white noise levels show that these two trajectories have the same SNR character. In conclusion, the SP trajectory can reduce the aliasing artifact without decreasing SNR and also provide a way for undersampling recon- struction. Furthermore, this method can be applied to three-dimensional （3D） hybrid or spherical radial k-space sampling for a more efficient reduction of aliasing artifacts.     

Nonlinear profile order for three-dimensional hybrid radial acquisition applied to self-gated free-breathing cardiac cine MRI

This paper presents a nonlinear profile order scheme for three-dimensional(3D) hybrid radial acquisition applied to self-gated, free-breathing cardiac cine magnetic resonance imaging(MRI). In self-gated, free-breathing cardiac cine MRI,respiratory and cardiac motions are unpredictable during acquisition, especially for retrospective reconstruction. Therefore,the non-uniformity of the k-space distribution is an issue of great concern during retrospective self-gated reconstruction. A nonlinear profile order with varying azimuthal increments was provided and compared with the existing golden ratio-based profile order. Optimal parameter values for the nonlinear formula were chosen based on simulations. The two profile orders were compared in terms of the k-space distribution and phantom and human image results. An approximately uniform distribution was obtained based on the nonlinear profile order for persons with various heart rates and breathing patterns.The nonlinear profile order provides more stable profile distributions and fewer streaking artifacts in phantom images. In a comparison of human cardiac cine images, the nonlinear profile order provided results comparable to those provided by the golden ratio-based profile order, and the images were suitable for diagnosis. In conclusion, the nonlinear profile order scheme was demonstrated to be insensitive to various motion patterns and more useful for retrospective reconstruction.     

基于心脏电影磁共振图像的一种新的右心室多图谱分割方法

基于心脏电影磁共振图像的右心室(RV)分割,对心脏疾病的诊疗及预后有着十分重要的意义.右心室结构复杂,传统图像分割方法始终未能达到较高的精度.多图谱方法通过配准和融合来实现RV分割,是近几年RV分割中的主要方法之一.本文提出一种新的右心室多图谱分割方法,能够实现RV的全自动准分割.本文首先采用自适应仿射传播算法获取一系列图谱集,并基于豪斯多夫距离和归一化互信息选择与目标图像最相似的图谱集;然后,依次采用多分辨率的仿射变换和Diffeomorphic demons算法将目标图像配准到最相似图谱集,并将配准得到的形变场应用于标记图像获得粗分割结果;最后,本文采用COLLATE算法融合粗分割结果得到RV轮廓.30例心脏电影磁共振数据被用于回顾性分析.本文算法与放射专家手工分割的RV相比,Dice指标和豪斯多夫距离的平均值分别为0.84,11.46 mm;舒张末期容积,收缩末期容积,射血分数的相关系数和偏差均值分别是0.94,0.90,0.86;2.5113,–3.4783,0.0341.与卷积神经网络相比,本文算法在收缩末期的分割精度更接近手动分割结果.实验结果表明,该方法从有效的图谱选择和基于多分辨率的Diffeomorphic demons算法的多级配准提高了右心室分割的精度,有望应用于临床辅助诊断.     

核磁共振水分子扩散张量成像中基于广义Fibonacci数列的扩散敏感梯度磁场方向分布方案

为了准确得到人体内水分子各向异性扩散信息,在核磁共振扩散张量成像及高角分辨率扩散成像实验中,需要在众多空间均匀分布的方向上依次施加扩散敏感梯度磁场,测量水分子在不同方向上的扩散系数.目前方向分布方案的缺点有方向数目不连续、均匀性有待提高及部分方向数据的损坏会影响整个数据集等.本文以广义Fibonacci数列为基础,提出新的可以产生连续方向数目的扩散敏感梯度磁场方向分布方案,整个方案的方向均匀性较好,数据集内的部分数据仍然具有很好的空间均匀性,而且本方案中相邻两个扩散敏感梯度磁场方向接近相反,可以减小快速变化的高强度梯度磁场产生的涡流对结果的影响.     

多分辨率水平集算法的乳腺MR图像分割

针对乳腺MR图像信息量大、灰度不均匀、边界模糊、难分割的特点,提出一种多分辨率水平集乳腺MR图像分割算法.算法的核心是首先利用小波多尺度分解对图像进行多尺度空间分析,得到粗尺度图像;然后对粗尺度图像利用改进CV模型进行分割.为了去除乳腺MR图像中灰度偏移场对分割效果的影响,算法中引入局部拟合项,并用核函数进一步改进CV模型,进而对粗尺度分割效果进行优化处理.仿真和临床数据分割结果表明,所提算法分割灰度不均匀图像具有较高的分割精度和鲁棒性,能够有效的实现乳腺MR图像的分割.     

Accuracy and effectiveness of self-gating signals in free-breathing three-dimensional cardiac cine magnetic resonance imaging

Conventional multiple breath-hold two-dimensional(2D) balanced steady-state free precession(SSFP) presents many difficulties in cardiac cine magnetic resonance imaging(MRI). Recently, a self-gated free-breathing three-dimensional(3D) SSFP technique has been proposed as an alternative in many studies. However, the accuracy and effectiveness of selfgating signals have been barely studied before. Since self-gating signals are crucially important in image reconstruction, a systematic study of self-gating signals and comparison with external monitored signals are needed.Previously developed self-gated free-breathing 3D SSFP techniques are used on twenty-eight healthy volunteers. Both electrocardiographic(ECG) and respiratory bellow signals are also acquired during the scan as external signals. Self-gating signal and external signal are compared by trigger and gating window. Gating window is proposed to evaluate the accuracy and effectiveness of respiratory self-gating signal. Relative deviation of the trigger and root-mean-square-deviation of the cycle duration are calculated. A two-tailed paired t-test is used to identify the difference between self-gating and external signals. A Wilcoxon signed rank test is used to identify the difference between peak and valley self-gating triggers.The results demonstrate an excellent correlation(P = 0, R 0.99) between self-gating and external triggers. Wilcoxon signed rank test shows that there is no significant difference between peak and valley self-gating triggers for both cardiac(H = 0, P 0.10) and respiratory(H = 0, P 0.44) motions. The difference between self-gating and externally monitored signals is not significant(two-tailed paired-sample t-test: H = 0, P 0.90).The self-gating signals could demonstrate cardiac and respiratory motion accurately and effectively as ECG and respiratory bellow. The difference between the two methods is not significant and can be explained. Furthermore, few ECG trigger errors appear in some subjects while these errors are not found in self-gating signals.