Joint estimation of image and coil sensitivities in parallel MRI

Parallel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using multichannel receiver coils has emerged as an effective tool to reduce imaging time in various dynamic imaging applications. However, there are still a number of image reconstruction issues that have not been fully addressed, thereby limiting the level of speed enhancement achievable with the technology. This paper considers the inaccuracy of coil sensitivities in conventional reconstruction methods such as SENSE, and reformulates the image reconstruction problem as a joint estimation of the coil sensitivities and the desired image, which is solved by an iterative algorithm. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method especially when large acceleration factors are used.