In vivo magnetic resonance P-31-Spectral Analysis With Neural Networks: 31P-SPAWNN

Purpose: We have introduced an artificial intelligence framework, 31P-SPAWNN, in order to fully analyze phosphorus-31 (P-31) magnetic resonance spectra. The flexibility and speed of the technique rival traditional least-square fitting methods, with the performance of the two approaches, are compared in this work. Theory and Methods: Convolutional neural network architectures have been proposed for the analysis and quantification of P-31-spectroscopy. The generation of training and test data using a fully parameterized model is presented herein. In vivo unlocalized free induction decay and three-dimensional P-31-magnetic resonance spectroscopy imaging data were acquired from healthy volunteers before being quantified using either 31P-SPAWNN or traditional least-square fitting techniques. Results: The presented experiment has demonstrated both the reliability and accuracy of 31P-SPAWNN for estimating metabolite concentrations and spectral parameters. Simulated test data showed improved quantification using 31P-SPAWNN compared with LCModel. In vivo data analysis revealed higher accuracy at low signal-to-noise ratio using 31P-SPAWNN, yet with equivalent precision. Processing time using 31P-SPAWNN can be further shortened up to two orders of magnitude. Conclusion: The accuracy, reliability, and computational speed of the method open new perspectives for integrating these applications in a clinical setting.