MR venography of the brain with enhanced vessel contrast using image-domain high-pass filtering of the susceptibility phase shift

Abstract

Purpose: To develop a postprocessing algorithm that enhances the visibility of intracranial venous vasculature and reduces the artifacts in the display of susceptibility-weighted images (SWI).

Materials and methods: Image-domain high-pass filters based on second-order phase difference were applied to the complex 3D SWI data to enhance the susceptibility phase shift of the veins and suppress background signal in SWI. A multivariant statistical parameter was used to suppress the noise in air.

Results: Magnetic resonance (MR) venography with enhanced susceptibility phase shift and reduced off-resonance artifacts was obtained using the proposed filters. The background signal in the 3D MR venography data was well suppressed. Venous vasculature in the peripheral regions of the brain was well depicted and the adverse effect of noise in air in the maximum-intensity projection display of the 3D SWI data was well suppressed.

Conclusion: Image-domain high-pass filtering with second-order phase difference provides an alternative display of 3D SWI data with enhanced visibility of the venous vasculature and effective suppression of artifacts.