title: Quantitative analysis of the reconstruction errors of the currently popular algorithm of magnetic resonance electrical property tomography at the interfaces of adjacent tissues.
abstract: This work quantitatively analyzed the reconstruction errors (REs) of electrical property (EP) images using a currently popular algorithm of magnetic resonance electrical property tomography (MREPT), which occurred along the tissue interfaces. Transmitted magnetic fields B1+ were acquired at 3 T using a birdcage coil loaded with a phantom consisting of various adjacent tissues. Homogeneous Helmholtz was employed to calculate the EP maps by Laplacian computation of central differences. The maps of absolute REs (aREs) and relative REs (rREs) were calculated. The maximum and mean rREs, in addition to rRE distributions at the interfaces, were presented. Reconstructed EP maps showed various REs along different interface boundaries. Among all the investigated tissue interfaces, the kidney-fat interface presented the maximum mean rREs for both conductivity and relative permittivity. The minimum mean rRE of conductivity was observed at the spleen-muscle interface, and the minimum mean rRE of relative permittivity was detected along the lung-heart interface. The mean rREs ranged from 0.3986 to 36.11 for conductivity and 0.2218 to 11.96 for relative permittivity. Overall, this research indicates that different REs occur at various tissue boundaries, as shown by the currently popular algorithm of MREPT. Thus, REs should be considered when applying MREPT to reconstruct the EP distributions inside the human body. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering Department and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Image Processing, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Song
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering Department and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Image Processing, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering Department and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Image Processing, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Guanhua
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering Department and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Image Processing, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Jiajia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld, Australia.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering Department and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Image Processing, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Sherman Xuegang
authors.initials: SX
authors.lastname: Xin
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D016477:Artifacts; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D060526:Magnetic Fields; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D010992:Plethysmography, Impedance / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014054:Tomography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods
keywords: electrical properties; errors analysis; magnetic resonance electrical property tomography; tissue interfaces