MRI Brain Phase Image Unwrapping Process by Wavelet Zero-Padding Technique

We present a preliminary design and experimental results of a phase discontinuity relaxation method for MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) phase images. Our method utilizes a wavelet transform algorithm with zero-padding technique. The method is capable of solving the ambiguity problem in MRI phase image by removing the discontinuous borders. The key idea of the wavelet transform algorithm is to process the given MRI phase data by operating frequency domain relaxation in coarse grids and then transferring the intermediate result into finer grids. In this paper we investigate the possibility of employing this approach for phase image based-MRI application. We also evaluate and compare these processed images with the original ones. The application of the proposed method for removing discontinuous border is demonstrated by examples.