Dual-channel end-to-end network with prior knowledge embedding for improving spatial resolution of magnetic particle imaging

Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) is an emerging non-invasive medical imaging tomography technology based on magnetic particles, with excellent imaging depth penetration, high sensitivity and contrast. Spatial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) are key performance metrics for evaluating MPI, which are directly influenced by the gradient of the selection field (SF). Increasing the SF gradient can improve the spatial resolution of MPI, but will lead to a decrease in SNR. Deep learning (DL) methods may enable obtaining high-resolution images from low-resolution images to improve the MPI resolution under low gradient conditions. However, existing DL methods overlook the physical procedures contributing to the blurring of MPI images, resulting in low interpretability and hindering breakthroughs in resolution. To address this issue, we propose a dual-channel end-to-end network with prior knowledge embedding for MPI (DENPK-MPI) to effectively establish a latent mapping between low-gradient and high-gradient images, thus improving MPI resolution without compromising SNR. By seamlessly integrating MPI PSF with DL paradigm, DENPK-MPI leads to a significant improvement in spatial resolution performance. Simulation, phantom, and in vivo MPI experiments have collectively confirmed that our method can improve the resolution of low-gradient MPI images without sacrificing SNR, resulting in a decrease in full width at half maximum by 14.8%–23.8 %, and the accuracy of image reconstruction is 18.2 %–27.3 % higher than other DL methods. In conclusion, we propose a DL method that incorporates MPI prior knowledge, which can improve the spatial resolution of MPI without compromising SNR and possess improved biomedical application.