Denoising and deinterleaving of EPSI data using structured low-rank matrix recovery

Echo-planar spectroscopic imaging (EPSI) sequence with spectrally interleaving is often used to rapidly collect metabolic MRI data. The main problem in using it on high field scanners is the presence of spurious peaks resulting from phase distortions between interleaves as well as the low signal to noise ratio. We introduce a novel structured low-rank framework for the simultaneous denoising and deinterleaving of spectrally interleaved EPSI data. The proposed algorithm exploits annihilation relations resulting from the linear predicability of exponential signals as well as due to uncorrected phase relations between interleaves. The algorithm is formulated as a structured nuclear norm minimization of a block Hankel matrix, derived from the interleaves. Experiments using hyperpolarized
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C mouse kidney EPSI data demonstrate the ability of the algorithm to remove ghost peaks from EPSI data collected using bipolar readout gradients.