High-Resolution Reference Image Assisted Volumetric Super-Resolution of Cardiac Diffusion Weighted Imaging

Abstract: Diffusion Tensor Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (DT-CMR) is the only in vivo method to non-invasively examine the microstructure of the human heart. Current research in DT-CMR aims to improve the understanding of how the cardiac microstructure relates to the macroscopic function of the healthy heart as well as how microstructural dysfunction contributes to disease. To get the final DT-CMR metrics, we need to acquire diffusion weighted images of at least 6 directions. However, due to DWI's low signal-to-noise ratio, the standard voxel size is quite big on the scale for microstructures. In this study, we explored the potential of deep-learning-based methods in improving the image quality volumetrically (x4 in all dimensions). This study proposed a novel framework to enable volumetric super-resolution, with an additional model input of high-resolution b0 DWI. We demonstrated that the additional input could offer higher super-resolved image quality. Going beyond, the model is also able to super-resolve DWIs of unseen b-values, proving the model framework's generalizability for cardiac DWI superresolution. In conclusion, we would then recommend giving the model a high-resolution reference image as an additional input to the low-resolution image for training and inference to guide all super-resolution frameworks for parametric imaging where a reference image is available.