GRAPPA-GANs for Parallel MRI Reconstruction

k-space undersampling is a standard technique to accelerate MR image acquisitions. Reconstruction techniques including GeneRalized Autocalibrating Partial Parallel Acquisition(GRAPPA) and its variants are utilized extensively in clinical and research settings. A reconstruction model combining GRAPPA with a conditional generative adversarial network (GAN) was developed and tested on multi-coil human brain images from the fastMRI dataset. For various acceleration rates, GAN and GRAPPA reconstructions were compared in terms of peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity (SSIM). For an acceleration rate of R=4, PSNR improved from 33.88 using regularized GRAPPA to 37.65 using GAN. GAN consistently outperformed GRAPPA for various acceleration rates.

Tracking Tensor Subspaces with Informative Random Sampling for Real-Time MR Imaging

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) nowadays serves as an important modality for diagnostic and therapeutic guidance in clinics. However, the {\it slow acquisition} process, the dynamic deformation of organs, as well as the need for {\it real-time} reconstruction, pose major challenges toward obtaining artifact-free images. To cope with these challenges, the present paper advocates a novel subspace learning framework that permeates benefits from parallel factor (PARAFAC) decomposition of tensors (multiway data) to low-rank modeling of temporal sequence of images. Treating images as multiway data arrays, the novel method preserves spatial structures and unravels the latent correlations across various dimensions by means of the tensor subspace. Leveraging the spatio-temporal correlation of images, Tykhonov regularization is adopted as a rank surrogate for a least-squares optimization program. Alteranating majorization minimization is adopted to develop online algorithms that recursively procure the reconstruction upon arrival of a new undersampled $k$-space frame. The developed algorithms are {\it provably convergent} and highly {\it parallelizable} with lightweight FFT tasks per iteration. To further accelerate the acquisition process, randomized subsampling policies are devised that leverage intermediate estimates of the tensor subspace, offered by the online scheme, to {\it randomly} acquire {\it informative} $k$-space samples. In a nutshell, the novel approach enables tracking motion dynamics under low acquisition rates `on the fly.' GPU-based tests with real {\it in vivo} MRI datasets of cardiac cine images corroborate the merits of the novel approach relative to state-of-the-art alternatives.