Two-point interference method for suppression of ghost artifacts due to motion

OPERA: a novel method to reduce ghost and aliasing artifacts

OBJECTIVE

A method for Orthogonal Phase Encoding Reduction of Artifact (OPERA) was developed and tested.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Because the position of ghosts and aliasing artifacts is predictable along columns or rows, OPERA combines the intensity values of two images acquired using the same parameters, but with swapped phase-encoding directions, to correct the artifacts. Simulations and phantom experiments were conducted to define the efficacy, robustness, and reproducibility. Clinical validation was performed on a total of 1003 images by comparing the OPERA-corrected images and the corresponding image standard in terms of Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) and Contrast-to-Noise Ratio (CNR). The method efficacy was also rated using a Likert-type scale response by two experienced independent radiologists using a single-blinded procedure.

RESULTS

Simulations and phantom experiments demonstrated the robustness and effectiveness of OPERA in reducing artifacts strength. OPERA application did not significantly change the SNR [+ 4.16%; inter-quartile range (IQR): 2.72-5.01%] and CNR (+ 4.30%; IQR: 2.86-6.04%) values. The two radiologists observed a total of 893 original images with artifacts (89.03% of the total images), a reduction in the perceived artifacts of 82.0% and 83.9% (p < 0.0001), and an improvement in the perceived SNR (82.8% and 88.5%; K = 0.714) and perceived CNR (86.9-88.9%; K = 0.722).

DISCUSSION

The study demonstrated that OPERA reduces MR artifacts and improves the perceived image quality.

Simplified skipped phase encoding and edge deghosting (SPEED) for imaging sparse objects with applications to MRA

The fast imaging method named skipped phase encoding and edge deghosting (SPEED) has been demonstrated to reduce scan time considerably with typical magnetic resonance imaging data. In this work, SPEED is simplified with improved efficiency to accelerate the scan of sparse objects; we refer to this method as S-SPEED. S-SPEED partially samples k-space into two interleaved data sets, each with the same skip size of N but a different relative shift in phase encoding. The sampled data are then Fourier transformed into two ghosted images with N aliasing ghosts. Given the sparseness of signal distribution, the ghosted images are simply modeled with a single-layer structure, analogous to that used in maximum-intensity projection. With an algorithm based on a least-square-error solution, a deghosted image is solved, and a residual map is output for quality control. S-SPEED can be generalized to include more layers with additional acquisitions for refined results. Without differential filtering and full central k-space sampling, S-SPEED reduces scan time further and achieves more straightforward reconstruction, as compared with SPEED. In this work, S-SPEED is applied to accelerate magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) by taking advantage of the sparse nature of MRA data. With sparse phantom data and in vivo phase contrast MRA data, S-SPEED is demonstrated to achieve satisfactory results with an acceleration factor of 5.5 using a single coil.

Accelerating MRI by skipped phase encoding and edge deghosting (SPEED)

A fast imaging method called skipped phase encoding and edge deghosting (SPEED) is introduced. The k-space is sparsely sampled into three interleaved datasets, each with a skip-size N and a relative shift in phase encoding (PE). These datasets are separately reconstructed by 2DFT and edge-enhanced by a differential filter in the PE direction, resulting in edge maps with phase-shifted aliasing ghosts. The sparseness of edges reduces the chance of ghost overlapping. Typical ghosted-edge maps can be adequately modeled with only two dominating ghost layers that are resolved from a set of three equations using least-square error minimization, yielding N ghost maps of different orders that can be registered and averaged into a single deghosted-edge map for noise and artifact reduction. Finally, the deghosted-edge map is transformed into a deghosted image by an inverse filter. A few central k-space lines are collected without PE skip to aid the inverse filtering. SPEED has been demonstrated by in vivo data to reduce scan time considerably without noticeable artifacts. It has various potential applications, such as MR angiography (MRA), where the signal itself is sparse. As an independent method, SPEED can be combined with other fast imaging methods for further acceleration.

Quantitative evaluation of metal artifact reduction techniques

PURPOSE

To develop a technique to quantify artifact, and to use it to compare the effectiveness of several approaches to metal artifact reduction, including view angle tilting and increasing the slice select and image bandwidths (BWs), in terms of metal artifact reduction, noise, and blur.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Nonmetallic replicas of two metal implants (stainless steel and titanium/chromium-cobalt femoral prostheses) were fabricated from wax, and MR images were obtained of each component immersed in water. The differences between the images of each metal prosthesis and its wax counterpart were measured. The contributions from noise and blur were isolated, resulting in a measure of the metal artifact. Several off-resonance artifact reduction techniques were assessed in terms of metal artifact reduction capability, as well as signal to noise ratio and blur.

RESULTS

Increasing the image BW from +/-16 kHz to +/-64 kHz was found to reduce the artifact by an average of 60%, while employing view angle tilting (VAT) alone was found to reduce the artifact by an average of 63%. The metal artifact reduction sequence (MARS), which combines several susceptibility artifact reduction techniques, resulted in the least amount of image distortion, reducing the artifact by an average of 79%.

CONCLUSION

The results indicate that while VAT alone (with an image BW of +/-16 kHz) resulted in the smallest amount of total energy and no reduction in the signal-to-noise ratio compared to a conventional spin-echo pulse sequence, MARS resulted in significantly less artifact and dramatically less blur.

MR physics of body MR imaging

This article reviews the major challenges of body imaging, describes the problems that arise from motion, and the many attempts at reducing this problem. Fast imaging sequences and approaches to reducing the data acquired without sacrificing image quality are described.

Band artifacts due to bulk motion

Band artifacts due to bulk motion were investigated in images acquired with fast gradient echo sequences. A simple analytical calculation shows that the width of the artifacts has a square-root dependence on the velocity of the imaged object, the time taken to acquire each line of k-space and the field of view in the phase-encoding direction. The theory furthermore predicts that the artifact width can be reduced using parallel imaging by a factor equal to the square root of the acceleration parameter. The analysis and results are presented for motion in the phase- and frequency-encoding directions and comparisons are made between sequential and centric ordering. The theory is validated in phantom experiments, in which bulk motion is simulated in a controlled and reproducible manner by rocking the scan table back and forth along the bore axis. Preliminary cardiac studies in healthy human volunteers show that dark bands may be observed in the endocardium in images acquired with nonsegmented fast gradient echo sequences. The fact that the position of the bands changes with the phase-encoding direction suggests that they may be artifacts due to motion of the heart walls during the image acquisition period.

Motion correction using the k-space phase difference of orthogonal acquisitions

Rigid body translations of an object in MRI create image artifacts along the phase-encode (PE) direction in standard 2DFT imaging. If two images are acquired with swapped PE direction, it is possible to determine and correct for arbitrary in-plane translational interview motions in both images directly from phase differences in the k-space acquisitions by solving a large system of linear equations. For example, if one assumes two N x N 2D acquisitions with in-plane translational interview motion, 4N unknown motions may corrupt the two images, but the phase difference at each point in k-space yields a system of N(2) equations in these 4N unknowns. If the acquisitions have orthogonal PE directions, this highly overdetermined system of equations can be solved to provide the motion records, which in turn can be used to correct the motion artifacts in each image. The theory of this orthogonal k-space phase difference (ORKPHAD) technique is described, and results are presented for synthetic and in vivo motion-corrupted data sets. In all cases, the data showed clear improvement of translation-induced artifacts. These methods do not require special pulse sequences and are theoretically generalizable to partial Fourier imaging and 3D acquisitions.

Improved estimation of velocity and flow rate using regularized three-point phase-contrast velocimetry

We improved the three-point phase-contrast method by regularization of MR velocity data after acquisition of a low velocity-to-noise ratio (VNR) velocity image and a high VNR aliased velocity image. The phase unwrapping algorithm is based on the assumed correlation of the velocity of adjacent flow voxels on the low VNR and the unaliased high VNR images. We used Fourier encoding with eight velocity-encoding gradient steps to obtain reference velocity images of the aorta from five subjects (274 images) and compared them with the phase-contrast and three-point phase-contrast images with and without regularization. The VNR of the regularized velocity image was improved by 9.1 dB and the VNR of the three-point phase-contrast velocity image was improved by 0.7 dB with respect to the low first moment velocity image. Corresponding improvements of 9 dB and 3.7 dB were obtained for the estimations of instantaneous flow rate. Magn Reson Med 44:122-128, 2000.

Autocorrection in MR imaging: adaptive motion correction without navigator echoes

A technique for automatic retrospective correction of motion artifacts on magnetic resonance (MR) images was developed that uses only the raw (complex) data from the MR imager and requires no knowledge of patient motion during the acquisition. The algorithm was tested on coronal images of the rotator cuff in a series of 144 patients, and the improvements in image quality were similar to those achieved with navigator echoes. The results demonstrate that autocorrection can significantly reduce motion artifacts in a technically demanding MR imaging application.

Spatial regularization of flow patterns in magnetic resonance velocity mapping

A technique dedicated to spatial regularization of magnetic resonance (MR) velocity data has been implemented to improve flow image quality. It is assumed that neighboring flow-velocity pixels are partially correlated, although large-velocity discontinuities remain possible. Increasing MR signal magnitude due to the in-flow effect also is used to enhance further reliability of the estimated velocity. By using an eight-step Fourier-encoding approach, 162 "reference" velocity images acquired in the ascending aorta from six healthy volunteers were compared with "raw" and "regularized" images that were computed from only two gradient steps. The mean square error decreased from 0.12 m(2) x s(-2) to 0.06 m(2) x s(-2) (P < 10-9) for velocity pixel values and from 1929 ml(2) x s(-2) to 1336 ml(2) x s(-2) (P < 0.01) for instantaneous flow rates. The regularization of two-step data sets provides the same velocity image quality as that found after using three-step data sets without regularization. The method can be applied to phase-velocity data sets of any MR technique to reduce velocity noise. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 1999;10:851-860.

Automatic correction of motion artifacts in magnetic resonance images using an entropy focus criterion

We present the use of an entropy focus criterion to enable automatic focusing of motion corrupted magnetic resonance images. We demonstrate the principle using illustrative examples from cooperative volunteers. Our technique can determine unknown patient motion or use knowledge of motion from other measures as a starting estimate. The motion estimate is used to compensate the acquired data and is iteratively refined using the image entropy. Entropy focuses the whole image principally by favoring the removal of motion induced ghosts and blurring from otherwise dark regions of the image. Using only the image data, and no special hardware or pulse sequences, we demonstrate correction for arbitrary rigid-body translational motion in the imaging plane and for a single rotation. Extension to three-dimensional (3-D) and more general motion should be possible. The algorithm is able to determine volunteer motion well. The mean absolute deviation between algorithm and navigator-echo-determined motion is comparable to the displacement step size used in the algorithm. Local deviations from the recorded motion or navigator-determined motion are explained and we indicate how enhanced focus criteria may be derived. In all cases we were able to compensate images for patient motion, reducing blurring and ghosting.

Water-fat imaging with direct phase encoding

A new method is introduced for water-fat imaging. With three acquisitions, a general direct phase encoding (DPE) of the chemical shift information is achieved. Pixels containing both water and fat are solved directly. Pixels with only a single component are resolved with local and global orientation filters, which use phase information from neighboring pixels. The fact that a single component is more likely to be water than fat in living tissues is also useful. A second pass solution yields water and fat images with superior signal-to-noise ratio. Unlike other methods, DPE does not rely on the error-prone phase unwrapping; also, it easily handles disconnected tissues. Because the magnetization vectors of water and fat are sampled not only at parallel or antiparallel, they can be not only separated but also identified respectively, which is desirable for routine clinical work. DPE has been implemented on several imagers at various field strengths and has been demonstrated in a large number of clinical cases to be useful and robust in various parts of the body.

An orthogonal correlation algorithm for ghost reduction in MRI

Ghosting in MRI due to modulation of k-space data can be caused by motion of the subject or characteristics of the sequence. A general solution for 2DFT MRI that reduces ghosting without causal modeling is presented. Separate image data sets are acquired in which the phase and frequency directions are swapped. In these two data sets, the image signal is correlated, whereas the ghost signals are not. By taking a correlation of these two data sets, an image with greatly reduced ghosting is obtained. The reduction is shown to depend both on the correct signal intensity of the image, as well as the ghost intensity in the ghosted region. The reduction approaches 100% in regions of low image signal, and is more moderate in regions of higher image signal. The process was applied to conventional spin-echo, fast-spin-echo, and gradient echo imaging of volunteers and a phantom. Results of a reader study of the volunteer images reflected a significant overall reduction of ghosting artifacts in all volunteer experiments.

Inversion recovery image reconstruction with multiseed region-growing spin reversal

A new algorithm is introduced for inversion recovery (IR) image reconstruction. The original complex image is modeled as a product of three factors: magnitude, polarity, and a smoothly changing phase factor. The simple binary polarity factor is first unified by a region-growing spin reversal (RGSR) operation, allowing the phase factor to be extracted. Multiplying the complex conjugate of the phase factor with the original complex data yields the desired IR contrast. The RGSR process is repeated with multiple seeds distributed in the field of view (FOV), and the results are added together, enabling disconnected tissues in the FOV to be handled. The extracted phase factor is filtered to reduce noise and artifacts, without losing useful information. The method is fully automatic and has been used practically in a large number of clinical examinations. The algorithm may also be useful for phase correction in simple proton spectroscopic imaging.

Velocity encoding using ghost artifacts

Motion artifacts represent a significant limitation of MRI, and an ideal solution to that problem has proved elusive. However, in this paper, motion artifacts are not considered as the usual enemy and are not suppressed; on the contrary, they are deliberately created to encode flow information. In MRI, velocity is encoded readily into the phase of a pixel. However, if the pixel contains overlapping signals, the phase of one of these signals now has consequences on both the magnitude and phase of the resulting pixel. It is shown here that an overlap of information may be used to encode velocity both in the phase and in the magnitude of an image, making the velocity-encoding process faster. The overlap of information is obtained by superposing ghosting artifacts of different orders and information is retrieved about complex intensity and velocity in two dimensions using the equivalent of two images instead of the usual three images. The price to pay to do so is some loss of simplicity in the equations involved, an increase in reconstruction computing time requirements, and a factor of 4 decrease in signal-to-noise ratio in the velocity measurements.

Phase constrained encoding (PACE): a technique for MRI in large static field inhomogeneities

In spin echo imaging, magnetization is assigned to a location defined by its frequency of rotation. In the presence of a static magnetic field inhomogeneity, however, this location does not correspond to the true location of the magnetization. This paper describes a magnetic resonance imaging technique called phase constrained encoding (PACE) that assigns magnetization to its true location through the use of a spin echo train and alternating readout gradients. Small artifactual side-bands occur in the point spread function but can be minimized or eliminated using higher gradient strengths, more echoes, and/or additional acquisitions. Implementation of a simple version of this technique confirms simulations.

Motion artifacts in fast spin-echo imaging

The purpose of this work is to obtain a better understanding of motion artifacts in fast spin-echo imaging, in order to eventually identify efficient ways of suppressing them. To do so, the point spread function of a moving point was calculated for fast spin-echo imaging, and experimental data were acquired by imaging a moving liquid sphere with a diameter of 1.5 mm. The agreement of the experimental results with the calculated point spread function is shown to be excellent. It was found that motion artifacts in fast spin-echo imaging arise from the convolution of two distinct band patterns. One of these patterns may dominate the convolution, giving its own spacing to the resulting image. For other acquisition parameters, the convolution results in an intricate pattern that may appear to lack overall structure.