In Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data samples are collected in the spatial frequency domain (k-space), typically by time-consuming line-by-line scanning on a Cartesian grid. Scans can be accelerated by simultaneous acquisition of data using multiple receivers (parallel imaging), and by using more efficient non-Cartesian sampling schemes. As shown here, reconstruction from samples at arbitrary locations can be understood as approximation of vector-valued functions from the acquired samples and formulated using a Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space (RKHS) with a matrix-valued kernel defined by the spatial sensitivities of the receive coils. This establishes a formal connection between approximation theory and parallel imaging. Theoretical tools from approximation theory can then be used to understand reconstruction in k-space and to extend the analysis of the effects of samples selection beyond the traditional g-factor noise analysis to both noise amplification and approximation errors. This is demonstrated with numerical examples.
@article{arxiv.1310.7489,
title = {Parallel Magnetic Resonance Imaging as Approximation in a Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space},
author = {Vivek Athalye and Michael Lustig and Martin Uecker},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1310.7489},
year = {2015}
}