A General Reconstruction Framework for Constrained Optimisation Problems in Hyperpolarised 13C Metabolic MR Imaging.

Abstract

Magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging with hyperpolarised 13C agents is a novel technique that examines the cellular metabolic reactions in a minimally invasive fashion. Being acquired under challenging conditions of rapidly decaying signal and limited injected dose of the hyper-polarised substance, reconstructed images exhibit low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and artefacts. The goal of this work was to enhance the quality of images by means of iterative reconstruction with included a priori knowledge in a form of additional constraints and to propose a valid extension to the physical model of signal acquisition.