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Accelerating EPI Distortion Correction by Utilizing a Modern GPU‐Based Parallel Computation
Author(s) -
Yang YaoHao,
Huang TengYi,
Wang FuNien,
Chuang TzuChao,
Chen NanKuei
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of neuroimaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1552-6569
pISSN - 1051-2284
DOI - 10.1111/j.1552-6569.2011.00654.x
Subject(s) - computer science , demodulation , cuda , computation , distortion (music) , computational science , algorithm , phase (matter) , graphics processing unit , parallel computing , physics , computer network , amplifier , channel (broadcasting) , bandwidth (computing) , quantum mechanics
ABSTRACT BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The combination of phase demodulation and field mapping is a practical method to correct echo planar imaging (EPI) geometric distortion. However, since phase dispersion accumulates in each phase‐encoding step, the calculation complexity of phase modulation is Ny‐fold higher than conventional image reconstructions. Thus, correcting EPI images via phase demodulation is generally a time‐consuming task. METHODS Parallel computing by employing general‐purpose calculations on graphics processing units (GPU) can accelerate scientific computing if the algorithm is parallelized. This study proposes a method that incorporates the GPU‐based technique into phase demodulation calculations to reduce computation time. The proposed parallel algorithm was applied to a PROPELLER‐EPI diffusion tensor data set. RESULTS The GPU‐based phase demodulation method reduced the EPI distortion correctly, and accelerated the computation. The total reconstruction time of the 16‐slice PROPELLER‐EPI diffusion tensor images with matrix size of 128 × 128 was reduced from 1,754 seconds to 101 seconds by utilizing the parallelized 4‐GPU program. CONCLUSIONS GPU computing is a promising method to accelerate EPI geometric correction. The resulting reduction in computation time of phase demodulation should accelerate postprocessing for studies performed with EPI, and should effectuate the PROPELLER‐EPI technique for clinical practice.