Projection image-to-image translation in hybrid X-ray/MR imaging
This addresses a domain-specific problem for medical imaging researchers and practitioners by enabling better integration of hybrid X-ray/MR systems, though it appears incremental as it modifies existing methods.
The paper tackles the problem of translating MR projection images to X-ray projection images for hybrid X-ray/MR imaging, enabling image enhancement without requiring both modalities in the same domain. The result is an approach that generates X-ray images with natural appearance and shows clear improvement over baseline methods.
The potential benefit of hybrid X-ray and MR imaging in the interventional environment is large due to the combination of fast imaging with high contrast variety. However, a vast amount of existing image enhancement methods requires the image information of both modalities to be present in the same domain. To unlock this potential, we present a solution to image-to-image translation from MR projections to corresponding X-ray projection images. The approach is based on a state-of-the-art image generator network that is modified to fit the specific application. Furthermore, we propose the inclusion of a gradient map in the loss function to allow the network to emphasize high-frequency details in image generation. Our approach is capable of creating X-ray projection images with natural appearance. Additionally, our extensions show clear improvement compared to the baseline method.