IEEE Trans Image Process. 2021;30:4840-4854. doi: 10.1109/TIP.2021.3076285. Epub 2021 May 7.
Deep learning-based super-resolution (SR) techniques have generally achieved excellent performance in the computer vision field. Recently, it has been proven that three-dimensional (3D) SR for medical volumetric data delivers better visual results than conventional two-dimensional (2D) processing. However, deepening and widening 3D networks increases training difficulty significantly due to the large number of parameters and small number of training samples. Thus, we propose a 3D convolutional neural network (CNN) for SR of magnetic resonance (MR) and computer tomography (CT) volumetric data called ParallelNet using parallel connections. We construct a parallel connection structure based on the group convolution and feature aggregation to build a 3D CNN that is as wide as possible with a few parameters. As a result, the model thoroughly learns more feature maps with larger receptive fields. In addition, to further improve accuracy, we present an efficient version of ParallelNet (called VolumeNet), which reduces the number of parameters and deepens ParallelNet using a proposed lightweight building block module called the Queue module. Unlike most lightweight CNNs based on depthwise convolutions, the Queue module is primarily constructed using separable 2D cross-channel convolutions. As a result, the number of network parameters and computational complexity can be reduced significantly while maintaining accuracy due to full channel fusion. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed VolumeNet significantly reduces the number of model parameters and achieves high precision results compared to state-of-the-art methods in tasks of brain MR image SR, abdomen CT image SR, and reconstruction of super-resolution 7T-like images from their 3T counterparts.
基于深度学习的超分辨率 (SR) 技术在计算机视觉领域取得了优异的性能。最近,已经证明,与传统的二维 (2D) 处理相比,用于医学体数据集的三维 (3D) SR 可以提供更好的视觉效果。然而,由于参数数量多且训练样本数量少,加深和加宽 3D 网络会显著增加训练难度。因此,我们提出了一种称为 ParallelNet 的用于磁共振 (MR) 和计算机断层扫描 (CT) 体数据集 SR 的 3D 卷积神经网络 (CNN),该网络使用并行连接。我们构建了一种基于分组卷积和特征聚合的并行连接结构,以构建尽可能宽的 3D CNN,同时使用少量参数。结果,该模型可以更彻底地学习具有更大感受野的更多特征图。此外,为了进一步提高准确性,我们提出了 ParallelNet 的高效版本(称为 VolumeNet),该版本使用称为队列模块的轻量级构建块模块减少参数数量并加深 ParallelNet。与大多数基于深度卷积的轻量级 CNN 不同,队列模块主要由可分离的 2D 跨通道卷积构建。因此,由于充分的通道融合,可以显著减少网络参数的数量和计算复杂度,同时保持准确性。实验结果表明,与最先进的方法相比,所提出的 VolumeNet 显著减少了模型参数数量,并在脑 MR 图像 SR、腹部 CT 图像 SR 以及从其 3T 对应物重建超分辨率 7T 样图像等任务中实现了高精度的结果。