Toward Clinical Translation of Deep Learning-Based Intracranial Super-Resolution 4D Flow MRI Using Multi-Cohort Transfer Learning

Overview & Synopsis

We evaluated synthetic pretraining and multi-cohort transfer learning for deep learning-based super-resolution of intracranial 4D Flow MRI across heterogeneous neurologic cohorts. This mixed prospective-retrospective study analyzed 18 participants (12 healthy participants, 3 with moyamoya disease, and 3 with multiple sclerosis) with paired 1.2-mm and 0.6-mm 4D Flow MRI scans. A convolutional neural network pretrained on synthetic cerebrovascular data was fine-tuned using cohort-specific or pooled multi-cohort in vivo data. High-resolution-derived inputs enabled voxel-wise evaluation; native standard-resolution scans were used for angiographic and hemodynamic analyses. Synthetic pretraining reduced mean artery-wise velocity-normalized root mean square error (vNRMSE) versus interpolation (0.147 vs 0.166). Pooled transfer learning yielded the lowest mean vNRMSE (0.119 vs 0.127 for cohort-specific models and 0.147 for synthetic pretraining), with narrower 95% limits-of-agreement widths than synthetic pretraining across all test cases (0.109-0.222 vs 0.154-0.278 m/s). Super-resolved phase-contrast angiography achieved higher precision-recall area under the curve than native standard-resolution imaging in all cohorts (0.848-0.896 vs 0.486-0.805). These results indicate that pooled transfer learning improves cross-cohort reconstruction agreement and that super-resolution can improve vessel depiction, supporting further multi-center validation for cerebrovascular imaging.