Projection image-to-image translation in hybrid X-ray/MR imaging

The potential benefit of hybrid X-ray and MR imaging in the interventional environment is enormous. However, a vast amount of existing image enhancement methods requires the image information to be present in the same domain. To unlock this potential, we present a solution to image-to-image translation from MR projections to corresponding X-ray projection images. The approach is based on a state-of-the-art image generator network that is modified to fit the specific application. Furthermore, we propose the inclusion of a gradient map to the perceptual loss to emphasize high frequency details. The proposed approach is capable of creating X-ray projection images with natural appearance. Additionally, our extensions show clear improvement compared to the baseline method.