Analysis of leakage artifacts and their impact on convergence of algebraic reconstruction in multi-contrast magnetic particle imaging

Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) is a tracer-based medical imaging modality with great potential due to its high sensitivity, high spatiotemporal resolution, and ability to quantify the tracer concentration. Image reconstruction in MPI is an ill-posed problem, which the use of regularization methods can address. Multi-contrast MPI reconstructs the signal from different tracer materials or environments separately, resulting in multi-channel images that enable quantification of, for example, temperature or viscosity. Single- and multi-contrast MPI reconstructions produce different kinds of artifacts. The objective of this work is threefold: first, to present the concept of multi-contrast specific MPI channel leakage artifacts; second, to ascertain the source of these leakage artifacts; and third, to introduce a method for their reduction.