Real-time adaptive filtering for projection reconstruction MR fluoroscopy

Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging has faced a dramatic increase in real-time capabilities over the last years. However, the application of fast pulse sequences still suffers from low signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), which can be the limiting factor for the actual acquisition speed. In MR fluoroscopy, filtering along the time and/or spatial domain can be applied to increase the image quality. In this paper, a projection-based noise filter is presented that significantly enhances the SNR in projection reconstruction (PR) fluoroscopy without apparent loss of resolution in the reconstructed images. In contrast to an imaged-based approach, this method allows a very efficient computational implementation. The filter algorithm was implemented on a digital signal processor and was applied to real-time processing during PR fluoroscopy. A quantitative analysis of the improvement in SNR and results for different fluoroscopic MR applications are given. Apart from MR fluoroscopy, the proposed technique has the potential to be applied to low dose computed tomography fluoroscopy.