Multi-voxel algorithm for quantitative bi-exponential MRI T1 estimation

Conference paper (2016)

Authors

P. Bladt Universiteit Antwerpen
Gwendolyn Van Steenkiste Universiteit Antwerpen
G Ramos-Llorden Universiteit Antwerpen
Arnold J. den Dekker Team Michel Verhaegen - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering , Universiteit Antwerpen
A.J. den Dekker Team Michel Verhaegen - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering , Universiteit Antwerpen
J Sijbers Universiteit Antwerpen
Research Group
Team Michel Verhaegen (Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2016 P. Bladt, G. Van Steenkiste, G. Ramos-Llordén, A.J. den Dekker, J. Sijbers
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2216831
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Published Date

2016

Language

English

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Faculty

Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering

Department

Delft Center for Systems and Control

Research Group

Team Michel Verhaegen

Abstract

Quantification of the spin-lattice relaxation time, T1, of tissues is important for characterization of tissues in clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In T1 mapping, T1 values are estimated from a set of T1-weighted MRI images. Due to the limited spatial resolution of the T1-weighted images, one voxel might consist of two tissues, causing partial volume effects (PVE). In conventional mono-exponential T1 estimation, these PVE result in systematic errors in the T1 map. To account for PVE, single-voxel bi-exponential estimators have been suggested. Unfortunately, in general, they suffer from low accuracy and precision. In this work, we propose a joint multi-voxel bi-exponential T1 estimator (JMBE) and compare its performance to a single-voxel bi-exponential T1 estimator (SBE). Results show that, in contrast to the SBE, and for clinically achievable single-voxel SNRs, the JMBE is accurate and efficient if four or more neighboring voxels are used in the joint estimation framework. This illustrates that, for clinically realistic SNRs, accurate results for quantitative biexponential T1 estimation are only achievable if information of neighboring voxels is incorporated.

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