Ph.D. Dissertation Proposal Defense "Super-Resolution Reconstruction of Magnetic Resonance Imaging" By Sara Gharabaghi

Ph.D. Committee:  Drs. Thomas Wischgoll (advisor), Mark E. Haacke (Wayne State University), Nasser H. Kashou, Arthur Goshtasby, and Tanvi Banerjee

ABSTRACT:

Brain diseases, in addition to the human suffering, have a huge economic burden to the world’s economy. This will grow in the future due to the relation of brain diseases with aging and increase in life expectancy. Therefore, the need for the diagnostic tools that enable doctors to provide more accurate and faster diagnosis is critical.

One of the widely used imaging tools for brain diseases diagnosis is Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). MRI is a structural modality that provides excellent soft tissue contrast. Furthermore, MRI is an ideal technique to study the development of fetal brain due to being harmless since it does not involve radiation.

In spite of all these unbeatable advantages, MRI suffers from limited spatial resolution which may result in reducing the accuracy of diagnosis and precision of any measurements of the size and morphology of the specific structure. For acquiring a high-resolution MRI, the patient needs to remain still in the MRI scanner for a longer period of time. In some applications such as fetal brain development, longer scans might not be possible. Therefore, the need for post-acquisition resolution enhancement is important.

Super Resolution reconstruction techniques are the solution to this problem. In this study, we are proposing a constraint-based super resolution technique to reconstruct the high-resolution MRI from single low-resolution MRI. Results of this research are beneficial to clinical applications in reducing the scan time and providing better visualizations of the brain to increase the accuracy of the diseases diagnosis, treatment process, and surgical planning.