title: Interactive local super-resolution reconstruction of whole-body MRI mouse data: a pilot study with applications to bone and kidney metastases.
abstract: In small animal imaging studies, when the locations of the micro-structures of interest are unknown a priori, there is a simultaneous need for full-body coverage and high resolution. In MRI, additional requirements to image contrast and acquisition time will often make it impossible to acquire such images directly. Recently, a resolution enhancing post-processing technique called super-resolution reconstruction (SRR) has been demonstrated to improve visualization and localization of micro-structures in small animal MRI by combining multiple low-resolution acquisitions. However, when the field-of-view is large relative to the desired voxel size, solving the SRR problem becomes very expensive, in terms of both memory requirements and computation time. In this paper we introduce a novel local approach to SRR that aims to overcome the computational problems and allow researchers to efficiently explore both global and local characteristics in whole-body small animal MRI. The method integrates state-of-the-art image processing techniques from the areas of articulated atlas-based segmentation, planar reformation, and SRR. A proof-of-concept is provided with two case studies involving CT, BLI, and MRI data of bone and kidney tumors in a mouse model. We show that local SRR-MRI is a computationally efficient complementary imaging modality for the precise characterization of tumor metastases, and that the method provides a feasible high-resolution alternative to conventional MRI.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Oleh
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Dzyubachyk
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands; Percuros B.V., Enschede, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Artem
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khmelinskii
authors.affiliation: Departments of Radiology and Medical Informatics, Erasmus MC - University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Esben
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Plenge
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands; Department of Intelligent Systems, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kok
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Thomas J A
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Snoeks
authors.affiliation: Departments of Radiology and Medical Informatics, Erasmus MC - University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Quantitative Imaging Group, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Dirk H J
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Poot
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Clemens W G M
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Löwik
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands; Department of Intelligent Systems, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Charl P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Botha
authors.affiliation: Departments of Radiology and Medical Informatics, Erasmus MC - University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Quantitative Imaging Group, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Wiro J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Niessen
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands; Department of Human Genetics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Louise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: van der Weerd
authors.affiliation: Departments of Radiology and Medical Informatics, Erasmus MC - University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Meijering
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands; Department of Intelligent Systems, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Boudewijn P F
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Lelieveldt
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000556:secondary*; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000556:secondary*; D008163:Luminescent Measurements; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D010865:Pilot Projects; D013997:Time Factors; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D051598:Whole Body Imaging