Automatic high-bandwidth calibration and reconstruction of arbitrarily sampled parallel MRI

PLoS One. 2014 Jun 10;9(6):e98937. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0098937. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Today, many MRI reconstruction techniques exist for undersampled MRI data. Regularization-based techniques inspired by compressed sensing allow for the reconstruction of undersampled data that would lead to an ill-posed reconstruction problem. Parallel imaging enables the reconstruction of MRI images from undersampled multi-coil data that leads to a well-posed reconstruction problem. Autocalibrating pMRI techniques encompass pMRI techniques where no explicit knowledge of the coil sensivities is required. A first purpose of this paper is to derive a novel autocalibration approach for pMRI that allows for the estimation and use of smooth, but high-bandwidth coil profiles instead of a compactly supported kernel. These high-bandwidth models adhere more accurately to the physics of an antenna system. The second purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the feasibility of a parameter-free reconstruction algorithm that combines autocalibrating pMRI and compressed sensing. Therefore, we present several techniques for automatic parameter estimation in MRI reconstruction. Experiments show that a higher reconstruction accuracy can be had using high-bandwidth coil models and that the automatic parameter choices yield an acceptable result.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Calibration
  • Humans
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted* / methods
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging* / methods
  • Models, Theoretical*

Grants and funding

This work was funded by the iMinds ICON project SuperMRI (Speeded-up processing of magnetic resonance images) and a University of Antwerp Interdisciplinary PhD grant (ID) BOF 26885 UA 2012. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.