PhD Defense

Speaker: Bilal Tasdelen, PhD Candidate, USC

Talk Title: Novel Acquisition, Reconstruction, and Physiological Monitoring Methods for Mid-Field MRI

Series: Medical Imaging Seminar Series

Abstract: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a powerful medical imaging technique that offers excellent soft-tissue contrast and remarkable flexibility, making it useful for a wide variety of clinical applications. In recent years, there has been growing interest in mid-field MRI (e.g., 0.55 T). Mid-field MRI offers potential advantages such as reduced costs and field inhomogeneity, but it also introduces new challenges, including reduced signal-to-noise ratio. This dissertation develops methods to expand imaging capabilities at 0.55T.In this talk, I will first describe an improved acquisition that exploits reduced field inhomogeneity and frequency separation to achieve high-resolution fat-suppressed liver imaging within a single breath-hold. Next, I will describe a novel method we termed High-Amplitude Pilot Tone with Interference Cancellation (HAPTIC), which enables contactless cardiac gating on 0.55T scanners, a capability that was previously infeasible. Finally, I will introduce a new workflow for the volumetric assessment of cardiac function during exercise stress, in which substantial motion and unreliable gating pose significant challenges. I will demonstrate that a motion-robust slice-to-volume reconstruction (SVR) technique, combined with a robust multimodal physiological gating fusion algorithm, can provide image quality suitable for cardiac function analysis. Together, these developments address challenges in acquisition, physiological monitoring, and motion-robust reconstruction, expanding abdominal and cardiovascular imaging capabilities at mid-field.

Biography: Bilal Tasdelen is a PhD candidate advised by Prof. Krishna Nayak. He earned his MSc and BS from Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey. His work focuses on applying signal processing techniques to remote cardiac gating and on utilizing contactless gating for real-time cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, enabling cheaper and more convenient examinations. Furthermore, he developed robust gating techniques for challenging imaging scenarios, such as arrhythmia patients and exercise stress imaging.

Host: Krishna Nayak

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