Bayesian model for highly accelerated phase-contrast mri

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016341810-A1
Application number	US-201615160083-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 20, 2016
Priority date	May 20, 2015
Publication date	Nov 24, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Methods and systems for accelerated Phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (PC-MRI). The technique is based on Bayesian inference and provides for fast computation via an approximate message passing algorithm. The Bayesian formulation allows modeling and exploitation of the statistical relationships across space, time, and encodings in order to achieve reproducible estimation of flow from highly undersampled data.

First claim

What is claimed:

1 . A method of image acquisition and reconstruction in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus, comprising:
acquiring undersampled phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (PC-MRI) data using Variable density incoherent spatiotemporal acquisition (VISTA) sampling; modeling the PC-MRI data in accordance with statistical relationships across space, time and encodings; performing an image reconstruction from modeled PC-MRI data; and displaying reconstructed images.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the modeling is a Bayesian modeling that is visualized as a factor graph.

3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising applying a sum-product rule using message passing on the factor graph representation of the PC-MRI data.

4 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising determining approximate marginal posterior distributions of x b , x v , θ v , and v,
wherein x b represents an image associated with a velocity-compensated measurement, wherein x v represents an image associated with a velocity-encoded measurement, where θ v represents a velocity-encoded phase, and wherein v represents a Bernoulli random variable.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the modeling is a Bayesian data model that provides for automatic tuning of at least one parameter associated with the image reconstruction.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the at least one parameter includes a prior probability of flow at each pixel and frame, and a variability between encodings.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein PC-MRI data is acquired in a single breath-hold and downsampled to obtain acceleration factors R=1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 12, 14 and 16.

8 . A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, comprising:
an MRI machine that acquires undersampled phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (PC-MRI) data using Variable density incoherent spatiotemporal acquisition (VISTA) sampling generates MRI image data; a computing device that receives the PC-MRI data and models the PC-MRI data in accordance with statistical relationships across space, time and encodings, the computing device further performing an image reconstruction from modeled PC-MRI data; and a display that receives and displays reconstructed images.

9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the modeling is a Bayesian modeling that is visualized as a factor graph.

10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the computing device further applies a sum-product rule using message passing on the factor graph representation of the PC-MRI data.

11 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the computing device further determines approximate marginal posterior distributions of x b , x v , θ v , and v,
wherein x b represents an image associated with a velocity-compensated measurement, wherein x v represents an image associated with a velocity-encoded measurement, where θ v represents a velocity-encoded phase, and wherein v represents a Bernoulli random variable.

12 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the modeling is a Bayesian data model that provides for automatic tuning of at least one parameter associated with the image reconstruction.

13 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the at least one parameter includes a prior probability of flow at each pixel and frame, and a variability between encodings.

14 . The system of claim 8 , wherein PC-MRI data is acquired by the MRI machine in a single breath-hold and downsampled to obtain acceleration factors R=1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 12, 14 and 16.

15 . A computer readable medium containing computer executable instructions that when executed by a processor of a computing device causes the computing device to perform a method of image acquisition and reconstruction in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus, comprising:
acquiring undersampled phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (PC-MRI) data using Variable density incoherent spatiotemporal acquisition (VISTA) sampling; modeling the PC-MRI data in accordance with statistical relationships across space, time and encodings; performing an image reconstruction from modeled PC-MRI data; and displaying reconstructed images.

16 . The computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the modeling is a Bayesian modeling that is visualized as a factor graph.

17 . The computer readable medium of claim 16 , further comprising instructions for applying a sum-product rule using message passing on the factor graph representation of the PC-MRI data.

18 . The computer readable medium of claim 17 , further comprising instructions for determining approximate marginal posterior distributions of x b , x v , θ v , and v,
wherein x b represents an image associated with a velocity-compensated measurement, wherein x v represents an image associated with a velocity-encoded measurement, where θ v represents a velocity-encoded phase, and wherein v represents a Bernoulli random variable.

19 . The computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the modeling is a Bayesian data model that provides for automatic tuning of at least one parameter associated with the image reconstruction.

20 . The computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein PC-MRI data is acquired in a single breath-hold and downsampled to obtain acceleration factors R=1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 12, 14 and 16.

Assignees

• Ohio State Innovation Foundation

Inventors

• Rich Adam
• Potter Lee C
• Jin Ning
• Ash Joshua
• Simonetti Orlando P
• Ahmad Rizwan

Classifications

• G06T12/00

  Tomographic reconstruction from projections · CPC title

• G01R33/56316 Primary

  involving phase contrast techniques · CPC title

• G06T2207/30101

  Blood vessel; Artery; Vein; Vascular · CPC title

• G06T2207/10088

  Magnetic resonance imaging [MRI] · CPC title

• G01R33/5611

  Parallel magnetic resonance imaging, e.g. sensitivity encoding [SENSE], simultaneous acquisition of spatial harmonics [SMASH], unaliasing by Fourier encoding of the overlaps using the temporal dimension [UNFOLD], k-t-broad-use linear acquisition speed-up technique [k-t-BLAST], k-t-SENSE (structural details of arrays of sub-coils G01R33/3415) · CPC title