Phase mask enhancement for multi-echo MR images using a novel denoising method based on tissue relaxation properties

Abstract

Multiple-echo magnetic resonance images are a series of images acquired at different echo times. Especially, phase images of multiple-echo images are often used to measure susceptibility of tissues. But these images tend to have a low SNR because high sampling rates are used to reduce the scan time. Conventional filters can effectively reduce noise, but introduce spatial artifacts. To obtain high-quality phase images without spatial artifacts, we developed new denoising method based on tissue relaxation properties. As a result, we could obtain high-SNR and high-resolution phase image and phase mask.