STRESS: Super-Resolution for Dynamic Fetal MRI using Self-Supervised Learning

Stop moving: MR motion correction as an opportunity for artificial intelligence

Subject motion is a long-standing problem of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which can seriously deteriorate the image quality. Various prospective and retrospective methods have been proposed for MRI motion correction, among which deep learning approaches have achieved state-of-the-art motion correction performance. This survey paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of deep learning-based MRI motion correction methods. Neural networks used for motion artifacts reduction and motion estimation in the image domain or frequency domain are detailed. Furthermore, besides motion-corrected MRI reconstruction, how estimated motion is applied in other downstream tasks is briefly introduced, aiming to strengthen the interaction between different research areas. Finally, we identify current limitations and point out future directions of deep learning-based MRI motion correction.

NeSVoR: Implicit Neural Representation for Slice-to-Volume Reconstruction in MRI

Reconstructing 3D MR volumes from multiple motion-corrupted stacks of 2D slices has shown promise in imaging of moving subjects, e. g., fetal MRI. However, existing slice-to-volume reconstruction methods are time-consuming, especially when a high-resolution volume is desired. Moreover, they are still vulnerable to severe subject motion and when image artifacts are present in acquired slices. In this work, we present NeSVoR, a resolution-agnostic slice-to-volume reconstruction method, which models the underlying volume as a continuous function of spatial coordinates with implicit neural representation. To improve robustness to subject motion and other image artifacts, we adopt a continuous and comprehensive slice acquisition model that takes into account rigid inter-slice motion, point spread function, and bias fields. NeSVoR also estimates pixel-wise and slice-wise variances of image noise and enables removal of outliers during reconstruction and visualization of uncertainty. Extensive experiments are performed on both simulated and in vivo data to evaluate the proposed method. Results show that NeSVoR achieves state-of-the-art reconstruction quality while providing two to ten-fold acceleration in reconstruction times over the state-of-the-art algorithms.

Deep Learning for Image Enhancement and Correction in Magnetic Resonance Imaging-State-of-the-Art and Challenges

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides excellent soft-tissue contrast for clinical diagnoses and research which underpin many recent breakthroughs in medicine and biology. The post-processing of reconstructed MR images is often automated for incorporation into MRI scanners by the manufacturers and increasingly plays a critical role in the final image quality for clinical reporting and interpretation. For image enhancement and correction, the post-processing steps include noise reduction, image artefact correction, and image resolution improvements. With the recent success of deep learning in many research fields, there is great potential to apply deep learning for MR image enhancement, and recent publications have demonstrated promising results. Motivated by the rapidly growing literature in this area, in this review paper, we provide a comprehensive overview of deep learning-based methods for post-processing MR images to enhance image quality and correct image artefacts. We aim to provide researchers in MRI or other research fields, including computer vision and image processing, a literature survey of deep learning approaches for MR image enhancement. We discuss the current limitations of the application of artificial intelligence in MRI and highlight possible directions for future developments. In the era of deep learning, we highlight the importance of a critical appraisal of the explanatory information provided and the generalizability of deep learning algorithms in medical imaging.

SVoRT: Iterative Transformer for Slice-to-Volume Registration in Fetal Brain MRI

Volumetric reconstruction of fetal brains from multiple stacks of MR slices, acquired in the presence of almost unpredictable and often severe subject motion, is a challenging task that is highly sensitive to the initialization of slice-to-volume transformations. We propose a novel slice-to-volume registration method using Transformers trained on synthetically transformed data, which model multiple stacks of MR slices as a sequence. With the attention mechanism, our model automatically detects the relevance between slices and predicts the transformation of one slice using information from other slices. We also estimate the underlying 3D volume to assist slice-to-volume registration and update the volume and transformations alternately to improve accuracy. Results on synthetic data show that our method achieves lower registration error and better reconstruction quality compared with existing state-of-the-art methods. Experiments with real-world MRI data are also performed to demonstrate the ability of the proposed model to improve the quality of 3D reconstruction under severe fetal motion.