Synthesized 7T MRI from 3T MRI via deep learning in spatial and wavelet domains.

Journal: Medical image analysis
Published Date:

Abstract

Ultra-high field 7T MRI scanners, while producing images with exceptional anatomical details, are cost prohibitive and hence highly inaccessible. In this paper, we introduce a novel deep learning network that fuses complementary information from spatial and wavelet domains to synthesize 7T T1-weighted images from their 3T counterparts. Our deep learning network leverages wavelet transformation to facilitate effective multi-scale reconstruction, taking into account both low-frequency tissue contrast and high-frequency anatomical details. Our network utilizes a novel wavelet-based affine transformation (WAT) layer, which modulates feature maps from the spatial domain with information from the wavelet domain. Extensive experimental results demonstrate the capability of the proposed method in synthesizing high-quality 7T images with better tissue contrast and greater details, outperforming state-of-the-art methods.

Authors

  • Liangqiong Qu
  • Yongqin Zhang
    School of Information Science and Technology, Northwest University, Xi'an 710127, China; Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. Electronic address: zhangyongqin@nwu.edu.cn.
  • Shuai Wang
    Department of Intensive Care Unit, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.
  • Pew-Thian Yap
    Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
  • Dinggang Shen
    School of Biomedical Engineering, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China.