Hello. Currently I am doing research that involves the pixel and spatial resolution in images from different scanners sensors (CT, MRI, etc.) as well as images from same sensor but using different techniques (e.g. MRI T1, T2, diffusion MRI). Any papers/reviews regarding the difference in resolution in the imaging techniques above?
Different modalities acquire different resolutions due to a combination of factors, mostly SNR (and CNR) and time for the scan to be run. CT can acquire very high resolution in a short time due to the nature of the design of the device and sensitivity of the sensors, whereas MRI is extremely sensitive to noise and takes much longer to acquire the data. MRI can acquire the same resolution as CT but only with specific software (pulse sequences) and would need to acquire many averages to increase SNR. MRI is also extremely sensitive to patient movement whereas CT is not. Also, TR and TE are major issues in MRI which directly relate to SNR. Note that MRI can acquire very high in-plane resolution quite easily with good SNR but is generally 2D (with thick slices) whereas 3D is more of a challenge to acquire high-resolution isotropic voxels whilst maintaining acceptable SNR (and CNR). As we say in MRI, "there's no free lunch" i.e. you gain one thing (e.g. resolution) but you lose something else (e.g. SNR). An exception to this is compressed sensing...
Hope this helps.
Jerome
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