ccelerated multi-shell diffusion MRI with Gaussian process estimated reconstruction of multi-band imaging.

Ye X., Miller KL., Wu W.

PURPOSE: This work aims to propose a robust reconstruction method exploiting shared information across shells to increase the acquisition speed of multi-shell diffusion-weighted MRI (dMRI), enabling rapid tissue microstructure mapping. THEORY AND METHODS: Local q-space points share similar information. Gaussian Process can exploit the q-space smoothness in a data-driven way and provide q-space signal estimation based on the signals from a q-space neighborhood. The Diffusion Acceleration with Gaussian process Estimated Reconstruction (DAGER) method uses the signal estimation from Gaussian process as a prior in a joint k-q reconstruction and improves image quality under high acceleration factors compared to conventional (k-only) reconstruction. In this work, we extend the DAGER method by introducing a multi-shell covariance function and correcting for Rician noise distribution in magnitude data when fitting the Gaussian process model. The method was evaluated with both simulation and in vivo data. RESULTS: Simulated and in-vivo results demonstrate that the proposed method can significantly improve the image quality of reconstructed dMRI data with high acceleration both in-plane and slice-wise, achieving a total acceleration factor of 12. The improvement of image quality allows more robust diffusion model fitting compared to conventional reconstruction methods, enabling advanced multi-shell diffusion analysis within much shorter scan time. CONCLUSION: The proposed method enables highly accelerated dMRI which can shorten the scan time of multi-shell dMRI without sacrificing quality compared to conventional practice. This may facilitate a wider application of advanced dMRI models in basic and clinical neuroscience.

DOI

10.1002/mrm.30518

Type

Journal article

Publication Date

2025-08-01T00:00:00+00:00

Volume

94

Pages

694 - 712

Total pages

18

Keywords

diffusion MRI, gaussian process, joint k‐q reconstruction, multi‐shell, Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Normal Distribution, Humans, Algorithms, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Brain, Computer Simulation, Signal-To-Noise Ratio

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