DiffGEPCI: 3D MRI Synthesis from mGRE Signals using 2.5D Diffusion Model

TL;DR

DiffGEPCI is a novel 2.5D diffusion-based framework that synthesizes high-quality MRI images from mGRE signals, improving cross-modality generation without additional measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a 2.5D diffusion model for MRI synthesis, combining slice-by-slice estimation with a refinement step for enhanced 3D image quality.

Findings

Outperforms GANs and traditional diffusion models in MRI synthesis

Produces high-quality FLAIR and MPRAGE images from mGRE signals

Effective in real data validation

Abstract

We introduce a new framework called DiffGEPCI for cross-modality generation in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using a 2.5D conditional diffusion model. DiffGEPCI can synthesize high-quality Fluid Attenuated Inversion Recovery (FLAIR) and Magnetization Prepared-Rapid Gradient Echo (MPRAGE) images, without acquiring corresponding measurements, by leveraging multi-Gradient-Recalled Echo (mGRE) MRI signals as conditional inputs. DiffGEPCI operates in a two-step fashion: it initially estimates a 3D volume slice-by-slice using the axial plane and subsequently applies a refinement algorithm (referred to as 2.5D) to enhance the quality of the coronal and sagittal planes. Experimental validation on real mGRE data shows that DiffGEPCI achieves excellent performance, surpassing generative adversarial networks (GANs) and traditional diffusion models.