Accelerated cardiac diffusion tensor imaging using deep neural network
Shaonan Liu, Yuanyuan Liu, Xi Xu, Rui Chen, Dong Liang, Qiyu Jin, Hui Liu, Guoqing Chen, Yanjie Zhu
Abstract
Abstract Cardiac diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a noninvasive method for measuring the microstructure of the myocardium. However, its long scan time significantly hinders its wide application. In this study, we developed a deep learning framework to obtain high-quality DTI parameter maps from six diffusion-weighted images (DWIs) by combining deep-learning-based image generation and tensor fitting, and named the new framework FG-Net. In contrast to frameworks explored in previous deep-learning-based fast DTI studies, FG-Net generates inter-directional DWIs from six input DWIs to supplement the loss information and improve estimation accuracy for DTI parameters. FG-Net was evaluated using two datasets of ex vivo human hearts. The results showed that FG-Net can generate fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity maps, and helix angle maps from only six raw DWIs, with a quantification error of less than 5%. FG-Net outperformed conventional tensor fitting and black-box network fitting in both qualitative and quantitative metrics. We also demonstrated that the proposed FG-Net can achieve highly accurate fractional anisotropy and helix angle maps in DWIs with different b -values.