Low Rank Matrix Completion­based Reconstruction for Undersampled Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting Data

Mariya Doneva 1 , Thomas Amthor1 , Peter Koken 1 , Karsten Sommer1 , and Peter Börnert1

1 Philips Research Europe, Hamburg, Germany

Synopsis
In this work, we present a method for reconstruction of undersampled Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting (MRF) data based on low rank
matrix completion, which is performed entirely in k­space and has low computational cost. The method shows significant improvement in
the MRF parameter maps accuracy compared to direct matching from undersampled data, potentially enabling more robust highly
accelerated MR Fingerprinting.
Introduction
Magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) is a novel technique, which enables simultaneous multi­parameter mapping and tissue characterization [1].
A pulse sequence with varying acquisition parameters is applied to generate unique signal evolution for each tissue type, which is matched to a
dictionary of simulated signal evolutions to recover the MR parameters of interest. MRF usually requires the acquisition of images at many time points
to gain sufficient parameter encoding capabilities. Often undersampled data are acquired for each time point and matching is directly performed on
these data, relying on the spatio­temporal incoherence of the sampling pattern. However, this can reduce the accuracy of the estimated parameter
maps, especially in case of high undersampling. An iterative reconstruction alternately applying MRF matching and data consistency steps was
proposed in [2], which shows significant improvement in the accuracy of MRF maps but is computationally expensive. In this work, we present an
alternative reconstruction for undersampled MRF data based on matrix completion, which is performed entirely in k­space and has lower
computational cost.
Methods

MRF data are inherently compressible due to the high correlation between images acquired at different time points. This compressibility has been
previously utilized to improve the computational efficiency of MRF matching [3]. In other words, if we form a $$$t\times n$$$ matrix containing
$$$n$$$ MR fingerprints with $$$t$$$ time points (e.g. the MRF dictionary), this matrix has a low rank. Therefore, we can define a compression
matrix that projects the data to a lower dimensional space, without significant signal loss. Due to the linearity of the Fourier transform this compression
matrix can be equivalently formulated in k­space. Since each point in k­space is a linear combination of all points in image space, the signal evolution
of a single k­space location contains information about all tissues in the object. Furthermore, the low rank of the MRF dictionary indicates that the data
can be described by a small number of temporal basis vectors, therefore our hypothesis is that only a small portion of k­space is sufficient to obtain a
good compression matrix. This compression matrix enables data reconstruction from incomplete measurements using matrix completion. First we
form a $$$t\times n$$$ calibration matrix $$$M_c$$$ containing the temporal signals for a fully sampled central part of k­space. The SVD of the
matrix $$$M_c = U\Sigma V^H$$$, where $$$U$$$and $$$V$$$ are unitary matrices of sizes $$$t\times t$$$ and $$$n\times n$$$, respectively and
$$$\Sigma$$$ contains the singular values of $$$M_c$$$. If $$$r$$$ is the rank of $$$M_c$$$, the matrix $$$M_c$$$ can be compressed to a size
$$$r\times n$$$ by projecting it onto the subspace spanned by the first $$$r$$$ rows of $$$U$$$. Our main premise is that the complete data matrix
$$$M$$$ also lives in the subspace defined by $$$U_r$$$ . We can recover the missing k­space data by iteratively applying two steps until
convergence:

1) Projection onto the $$$r$$$ dimensional subspace spanned by $$$U_r$$$ :

$$M_{i+1} = U_r U_r^H M_i $$

2) Data consistency step:

$$M_{i+2} = M_0+M_{i+1}(1­R),$$

where $$$M_0$$$ is the measured undersampled k­space data and $$$R$$$ indicates the sampling positions.

To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method, MRF data were acquired in a phantom with a FISP­based MRF sequence [4] with 1000 time
points and fully sampled Cartesian trajectory on a 1.5T Philips Achieva scanner. The k­space data were retrospectively undersampled by a factor of 5,
using a uniform density Poisson disk sampling pattern in $$$ky­t$$$ space with 7 fully sampled central k­space lines. The compression matrix
$$$U_r$$$ is computed from the 7x7 central part of k­space. As a first test, the fully sampled data is compressed using $$$U_r$$$ to investigate the
accuracy of the low rank approximation. The undersampled MRF data were recovered by the matrix completion scheme described above. The image
series from the fully sampled, undersampled, and reconstructed data were used as an input to an MRF parameter mapping, estimating T1, T2, and
proton density maps, using a dictionary with 24000 elements (T1 range 100:2100ms, T2 range 10:610).
Results
Fig.1 shows the excellent agreement between the measured signal evolution and the approximated signal using low rank matrix approximation for a
single pixel of the phantom. Fig.2 shows the parameter maps obtained from the fully sampled, undersampled, and low rank reconstructed data. The
proposed reconstruction shows very good agreement with the fully sampled data, while direct matching from undersampled data leads to significant
deviation in the matched parameter values, especially for T1.
Conclusion
The proposed method shows significant improvement in the parameter maps compared to the direct matching proposed in [1].
Acknowledgements
No acknowledgement found.
References
[1] Ma D et al. Nature. 2013; 495:187­192

[2] Pierre E et al MRM 2015 DOI: 10.1002/mrm.25776

[3] McGivney D et al IEEE Trans Med Imaging 2014; 33:2311­22

[4] Jiang Y et al. MRM 2014 DOI: 10.1002/mrm.25559

Figures

Figure1. Comparison between acquired (red) and low rank approximated (blue) temporal evolution for a single pixel. The excellent agreement between the acquired and low rank approximated data shows
that a good quality compression matrix can be estimated from a small central region of k­space.

Fifure 2. T1 (top) and T2 (bottom) maps obtained from fully sampled (left), zero filled subsampled (center) and low rank reconstructed data (right). The low rank reconstruction shows very good agreement with
the fully sampled data, while direct matching from subsampled and zero filled data leads to blurring and significant deviation in the matched parameter values, especially for T1.

Proc. Intl. Soc. Mag. Reson. Med. 24 (2016) 0432