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Journey through k-space: an interactive educational tool

Mahmood Qureshi, Muhammad Kaleem, Hammad Omer

In Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), the information about the image is collected in the form of Radio Frequency (RF) signals with a range of frequencies and phases. The MR image is then reconstructed by performing the inverse Fourier Transform of the acquired raw data (k-space). A good understanding of the k-space offers important insight into the basic properties related to signal-to-noise ratio, image distortion, resolution and contrast in MRI. This paper presents an implementation of various MATLAB functions for exploring the different properties of k-space such as acceleration factor, filtering schemes, different kinds of artefacts, quantifying parameters. The user is also able to visualize different kinds of trajectories (Cartesian and Non-Cartesian) using animations. The main purpose of this toolbox is to present an interactive graphical user interface (GUI) using MATLAB for researchers and graduate/undergraduate students to develop better understanding of MRI. In order to evaluate the usefulness of the tool, it is used by graduate/undergraduate students in different projects. It has been observed that the students were able to use the toolbox “k-space and Interactive Educational Tool” effectively without prior background knowledge in k-space. The software toolbox is available for free download from our research group website.