Assessing the efficacy of 3D Dual-CycleGAN model for multi-contrast MRI synthesis

Abstract Background This research presents a novel methodology for synthesizing 3D multi-contrast MRI images utilizing the 3D Dual-CycleGAN architecture. The performance of the model is evaluated on different MRI sequences, including T1-weighted (T1W), T1-weighted contrast-enhanced (T1c), T2-weighted (T2W), and FLAIR sequences. Results Our approach demonstrates proficient learning capabilities in transforming T1W images into target modalities. The proposed framework encompasses a combination of different loss functions including voxel-wise, gradient difference, perceptual, and structural similarity losses. These loss components, along with adversarial and dual cycle-consistency losses, contribute significantly to realistic and accurate syntheses. Evaluation metrics including MAE, PMAE, RMSE, PCC, PSNR, and SSIM are employed to assess the fidelity of synthesized images compared to their ground truth counterparts. Empirical results indicate the effectiveness of the 3D Dual-CycleGAN model in generating T1c images from T1W inputs with minimal average discrepancies (MAE of 2.8 ± 2.61) and strong similarity (SSIM of 0.82 ± 0.28). Furthermore, the synthesis of T2W and FLAIR images yields promising outcomes, demonstrating acceptable average discrepancies (MAE of 3.87 ± 3.32 for T2W and 3.82 ± 3.32 for FLAIR) and reasonable similarities (SSIM of 0.82 ± 0.28 for T2W and 0.80 ± 0.29 for FLAIR) relative to the original images. Conclusions These findings underscore the efficacy of the 3D Dual-CycleGAN model in generating high-fidelity images, with significant implications for diverse applications in the field of medical imaging.