Deep learning-based reconstruction for three-dimensional volumetric brain MRI: a qualitative and quantitative assessment.

Background: To evaluate the performance of a deep learning reconstruction (DLR) based on Adaptive-Compressed sensing (CS)-Network for brain MRI and validate it in a clinical setting.

Methods: Ten healthy volunteers and 22 consecutive patients were prospectively enrolled. Volunteers underwent 3D brain MRI including T1 without CS factor (9:16 min, reference standard); with CS factor of 2 without DLR (CS2, 4:6 min); with CS factor of 2 with DLR (DLR-CS2); with CS factor of 4 without DLR (CS4, 2:6 min); and with CS factor of 4 with DLR (DLR-CS4). The patients' MRI included the CS2 and DLR-CS4. The volumes of lateral ventricles, hippocampus, choroid plexus, and white matter hypointensity were calculated and compared among the sequences. Three radiologists independently assessed anatomical conspicuity, overall image quality, artifacts, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and sharpness using a 5-point scale for each sequence.

Results: Applying acceleration factors of 2 and 4 reduced the scan time to 65.4% and 33.5%, respectively, of that of the reference standard. Volumes of all the measured subregions showed no significant differences among different sequences in all participants. In qualitative analysis, the interrater agreement was excellent (κ = 0.844-0.926). In volunteers, quality of DLR-CS4 were comparable to those of CS2 for all metrics except for the overall image quality and SNR despite a 51.2% scan time reduction. In patients, DLR-CS4 showed quality comparable to that of CS2 for all metrics.

Conclusions: DLR allowed the scan time reduction by at least half without sacrificing image quality and volumetric quantification accuracy, supporting its reliability and efficiency.