arXiv:2604.19474eess.IV2026-04

提升跨100+扫描仪MRI图像的统一性,让多中心数据更可比。

Harmonizing MR Images Across 100+ Scanners: Multi-site Validation with Traveling Subjects and Real-world Protocols

  • 改进了伪影编码器和注意力机制,提升图像统一精度。
  • 在64个独立站点、超100台扫描仪上验证,泛化能力更强。
  • 适合临床科研和多中心影像分析,代码公开可用。

可靠统一异构磁共振(MR)图像数据集,尤其在现实临床试验中获取的数据,对推进多中心神经影像研究和医疗机器学习转化至关重要。本文提出增强版且经过严格验证的HACA3 harmonization算法,称为HACA3⁺,包含三项关键改进:(1)改进的伪影编码器以更好分离并抑制图像伪影;(2)背景与前景敏感的注意力机制,提升统一特异性;(3)使用来自64个独立站点、覆盖100+扫描仪的广泛数据进行训练,多样性超过其他方法。研究聚焦四种常见MR对比(T1加权、T2加权、质子密度、液体衰减反转恢复),反映真实临床协议。通过旅行受试者进行跨站点统一实验,评估模型泛化与鲁棒性。对比公开版HACA3与本实现的HACA3⁺结果,并通过全脑分割与图像补全验证下游有效性。每项改进均通过消融实验验证。HACA3⁺的预训练权重与代码已公开于https://github.com/shays15/haca3-plus。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Reliable harmonization of heterogeneous magnetic resonance~(MR) image datasets, especially those acquired in pragmatic clinical trials, is critical to advance multi-center neuroimaging studies and translational machine learning in healthcare. We present an enhanced and rigorously validated version of the HACA3 harmonization algorithm, which we refer to as HACA3$^+$, incorporating key methodological enhancements: (1)~an improved artifact encoder to better isolate and mitigate image artifacts, (2)~background and foreground-sensitive attention mechanisms to increase harmonization specificity, and (3)~extensive training using data spanning 100+ scanners from 64 independent sites, providing a broader diversity of scanners than other harmonization methods. Our study focuses on four commonly acquired MR image contrasts (T1-weighted, T2-weighted, proton density, \& fluid-attenuated inversion recovery), reflecting realistic clinical protocols. We perform inter-site harmonization experiments using traveling subjects to assess the generalization and robustness of the harmonization model. We compare the results of the publicly available version of HACA3 and our implementation, HACA3$^+$. Downstream relevance is further established through whole brain segmentation and image imputation. Finally, we justify each enhancement through an ablation experiment. Pre-trained weights and code for HACA3$^+$ are made publicly available at https://github.com/shays15/haca3-plus.

MRI统一多中心研究深度学习医学影像

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