MRI Recovery with Self-Calibrated Denoisers without Fully-Sampled Data

Abstract: Objective: Acquiring fully sampled training data is challenging for many MRI applications. We present a self-supervised image reconstruction method, termed ReSiDe, capable of recovering images solely from undersampled data. Materials and Methods: ReSiDe is inspired by plug-and-play (PnP) methods, but unlike traditional PnP approaches that utilize pre-trained denoisers, ReSiDe iteratively trains the denoiser on the image or images that are being reconstructed. We introduce two variations of our method: ReSiDe-S and ReSiDe-M. ReSiDe-S is scan-specific and works with a single set of undersampled measurements, while ReSiDe-M operates on multiple sets of undersampled measurements and provides faster inference. Studies I, II, and III compare ReSiDe-S and ReSiDe-M against other self-supervised or unsupervised methods using data from T1- and T2-weighted brain MRI, MRXCAT digital perfusion phantom, and first-pass cardiac perfusion, respectively. Results: ReSiDe-S and ReSiDe-M outperform other methods in terms of peak signal-to-noise ratio and structural similarity index measure for Studies I and II, and in terms of expert scoring for Study III. Discussion: We present a self-supervised image reconstruction method and validate it in both static and dynamic MRI applications. These developments can benefit MRI applications where the availability of fully sampled training data is limited.