Purpose: To enable magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided radiotherapy with real-time adaptation, motion must be quickly estimated with low latency. The motion estimate is used to adapt the radiation beam to the current anatomy, yielding a more conformal dose distribution. As the MR acquisition is the largest component of latency, deep learning (DL) may reduce the total latency by enabling much higher undersampling factors compared to conventional reconstruction and motion estimation methods. The benefit of DL on image reconstruction and motion estimation was investigated for obtaining accurate deformation vector fields (DVFs) with high temporal resolution and minimal latency. Methods: 2D cine MRI acquired at 1.5T from 135 abdominal cancer patients were retrospectively included in this study. Undersampled radial golden angle acquisitions were retrospectively simulated. DVFs were computed using different combinations of conventional- and DL-based methods for image reconstruction and motion estimation, allowing a comparison of four approaches to achieve real-time motion estimation. The four approaches were evaluated based on the end-point-error and root-mean-square error compared to a ground-truth optical flow estimate on fully-sampled images, the structural similarity (SSIM) after registration and time necessary to acquire k-space, reconstruct an image and estimate motion. Results: The lowest DVF error and highest SSIM were obtained using conventional methods up to R≤10. For undersampling factors R>10, the lowest DVF error and highest SSIM were obtained using conventional image reconstruction and DL-based motion estimation. We have found that, with this combination, accurate DVFs can be obtained up to R=25 with an average root-mean-square error up to 1 millimeter and an SSIM greater than 0.8 after registration, taking 60 milliseconds. Conclusion: High-quality 2D DVFs from highly undersampled k-space can be obtained with a high temporal resolution with conventional image reconstruction and a deep learning-based motion estimation approach for real-time adaptive MRI-guided radiotherapy. Creative Commons Attribution license.
Purpose: To enable magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided radiotherapy with real-time adaptation, motion must be quickly estimated with low latency. The motion estimate is used to adapt the radiation beam to the current anatomy, yielding a more conformal dose distribution. As the MR acquisition is the largest component of latency, deep learning (DL) may reduce the total latency by enabling much higher undersampling factors compared to conventional reconstruction and motion estimation methods. The benefit of DL on image reconstruction and motion estimation was investigated for obtaining accurate deformation vector fields (DVFs) with high temporal resolution and minimal latency. Methods: 2D cine MRI acquired at 1.5T from 135 abdominal cancerpatients were retrospectively included in this study. Undersampled radial golden angle acquisitions were retrospectively simulated. DVFs were computed using different combinations of conventional- and DL-based methods for image reconstruction and motion estimation, allowing a comparison of four approaches to achieve real-time motion estimation. The four approaches were evaluated based on the end-point-error and root-mean-square error compared to a ground-truth optical flow estimate on fully-sampled images, the structural similarity (SSIM) after registration and time necessary to acquire k-space, reconstruct an image and estimate motion. Results: The lowest DVF error and highest SSIM were obtained using conventional methods up to R≤10. For undersampling factors R>10, the lowest DVF error and highest SSIM were obtained using conventional image reconstruction and DL-based motion estimation. We have found that, with this combination, accurate DVFs can be obtained up to R=25 with an average root-mean-square error up to 1 millimeter and an SSIM greater than 0.8 after registration, taking 60 milliseconds. Conclusion: High-quality 2D DVFs from highly undersampled k-space can be obtained with a high temporal resolution with conventional image reconstruction and a deep learning-based motion estimation approach for real-time adaptive MRI-guided radiotherapy. Creative Commons Attribution license.
Authors: Rosie J Goodburn; Marielle E P Philippens; Thierry L Lefebvre; Aly Khalifa; Tom Bruijnen; Joshua N Freedman; David E J Waddington; Eyesha Younus; Eric Aliotta; Gabriele Meliadò; Teo Stanescu; Wajiha Bano; Ali Fatemi-Ardekani; Andreas Wetscherek; Uwe Oelfke; Nico van den Berg; Ralph P Mason; Petra J van Houdt; James M Balter; Oliver J Gurney-Champion Journal: Magn Reson Med Date: 2022-09-21 Impact factor: 3.737
Authors: Paul J Keall; Caterina Brighi; Carri Glide-Hurst; Gary Liney; Paul Z Y Liu; Suzanne Lydiard; Chiara Paganelli; Trang Pham; Shanshan Shan; Alison C Tree; Uulke A van der Heide; David E J Waddington; Brendan Whelan Journal: Nat Rev Clin Oncol Date: 2022-04-19 Impact factor: 65.011