WIAS Preprint No. 2432, (2017)

Simultaneous adaptive smoothing of relaxometry and quantitative magnetization transfer mapping



Authors

  • Mohammadi, Siawoosh
  • D'Alonzo, Chiara
  • Ruthotto, Lars
  • Polzehl, Jörg
    ORCID: 0000-0001-7471-2658
  • Ellerbrock, Isabel
  • Callaghan, Martina F.
  • Weiskopf, Nikolaus
  • Tabelow, Karsten
    ORCID: 0000-0003-1274-9951

2010 Mathematics Subject Classification

  • 62P10 62G05

Keywords

  • Quantitative MRI, Multi-Paramter Mapping, structural adaptive smoothing

DOI

10.20347/WIAS.PREPRINT.2432

Abstract

Attempts for in-vivo histology require a high spatial resolution that comes with the price of a decreased signal-to-noise ratio. We present a novel iterative and multi-scale smoothing method for quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data that yield proton density, apparent transverse and longitudinal relaxation, and magnetization transfer maps. The method is based on the propagation-separation approach. The adaptivity of the procedure avoids the inherent bias from blurring subtle features in the calculated maps that is common for non-adaptive smoothing approaches. The characteristics of the methods were evaluated on a high-resolution data set (500 μ isotropic) from a single subject and quantified on data from a multi-subject study. The results show that the adaptive method is able to increase the signal-to-noise ratio in the calculated quantitative maps while largely avoiding the bias that is otherwise introduced by spatially blurring values across tissue borders. As a consequence, it preserves the intensity contrast between white and gray matter and the thin cortical ribbon.

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