High Spatial and Temporal Resolution Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Angiography Using Compressed Sensing with Magnitude Image Subtraction

PurposeWe propose a compressed-sensing (CS) technique based on magnitude image subtraction for high spatial and temporal resolution dynamic contrast-enhanced MR angiography (CE-MRA). MethodsOur technique integrates the magnitude difference image into the CS reconstruction to promote subtraction sparsity. Fully sampled Cartesian 3D CE-MRA datasets from 6 volunteers were retrospectively under-sampled and three reconstruction strategies were evaluated: k-space subtraction CS, independent CS, and magnitude subtraction CS. The techniques were compared in image quality (vessel delineation, image artifacts, and noise) and image reconstruction error. Our CS technique was further tested on seven volunteers using a prospectively under-sampled CE-MRA sequence. ResultsCompared with k-space subtraction and independent CS, our magnitude subtraction CS provides significantly better vessel delineation and less noise at 4x acceleration, and significantly less reconstruction error at 4x and 8x (P<0.05 for all). On a 1-4 point image quality scale in vessel delineation, our technique scored 3.80.4 at 4x, 2.8 +/- 0.4 at 8x, and 2.3 +/- 0.6 at 12x acceleration. Using our CS sequence at 12x acceleration, we were able to acquire dynamic CE-MRA with higher spatial and temporal resolution than current clinical TWIST protocol while maintaining comparable image quality (2.8 +/- 0.5 vs. 3.0 +/- 0.4, P=NS). ConclusionOur technique is promising for dynamic CE-MRA. Magn Reson Med 71:1771-1783, 2014. (c) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.