Deep neural network inspired by iterative shrinkage-thresholding algorithm with data consistency (NISTAD) for fast Undersampled MRI reconstruction

With the aim of developing a fast algorithm for high-quality MRI reconstruction from undersampled k-space data, we propose a novel deep neural Network, which is inspired by Iterative Shrinkage Thresholding Algorithm with Data consistency (NISTAD). NISTAD consists of three consecutive blocks: an encoding block, which models the flow graph of ISTA, a classical iteration-based compressed sensing magnetic resonance imaging (CS-MRI) method; a decoding block, which recovers the image from sparse representation; a data consistency block, which adaptively enforces consistency with the acquired raw data according to learned noise level. The ISTA method is thereby mapped to an end-to-end deep neural network, which greatly reduces the reconstruction time and simplifies the tuning of hyper-parameters, compared to conventional model-based CS-MRI methods. On the other hand, compared to general deep learning-based MRI reconstruction methods, the proposed method uses a simpler network architecture with fewer parameters. NISTAD has been validated on retrospectively undersampled diencephalon standard challenge data using different acceleration factors, and compared with DAGAN and Cascade CNN, two state-of-the-art deep neural network-based methods which outperformed many other state-of-the-art model-based and deep learning-based methods. Experimental results demonstrated that NISTAD reconstruction achieved comparable image quality with DAGAN and Cascade CNN reconstruction in terms of both PSNR and SSIM metrics, and subjective assessment, though with a simpler network structure.