Deep learning-based super-resolution of structural brain MRI at 1.5 T: application to quantitative volume measurement

This study investigated the feasibility of using deep learning-based super-resolution (DL-SR) technique on low-resolution (LR) images to generate high-resolution (HR) MR images with the aim of scan time reduction. The efficacy of DL-SR was also assessed through the application of brain volume measurement (BVM).

In vivo brain images acquired with 3D-T1W from various MRI scanners were utilized. For model training, LR images were generated by downsampling the original 1 mm–2 mm isotropic resolution images. Pairs of LR and HR images were used for training 3D residual dense net (RDN). For model testing, actual scanned 2 mm isotropic resolution 3D-T1W images with one-minute scan time were used. Normalized root-mean-square error (NRMSE), peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), and structural similarity (SSIM) were used for model evaluation. The evaluation also included brain volume measurement, with assessments of subcortical brain regions.

The results showed that DL-SR model improved the quality of LR images compared with cubic interpolation, as indicated by NRMSE (24.22% vs 30.13%), PSNR (26.19 vs 24.65), and SSIM (0.96 vs 0.95). For volumetric assessments, there were no significant differences between DL-SR and actual HR images (p > 0.05, Pearson’s correlation > 0.90) at seven subcortical regions.

The combination of LR MRI and DL-SR enables addressing prolonged scan time in 3D MRI scans while providing sufficient image quality without affecting brain volume measurement.