Tailored and universal parallel transmit broadband pulses for homogeneous 3D excitation of the human heart at 7T

PURPOSE

To research and evaluate the performance of broadband tailored kT-point pulses (TP) and universal pulses (UP) for homogeneous excitation of the human heart at 7T.

METHODS

Relative 3DB 1 + $$ {\mathrm{B}}_1^{+} $$ -maps of the thorax were acquired from 29 healthy volunteers. TP and UP were designed using the small-tip-angle approximation for a different composition of up to seven resonance frequencies. TP were computed for each of the 29B 1 + $$ {\mathrm{B}}_1^{+} $$ -maps, and UPs were calculated using 22B 1 + $$ {\mathrm{B}}_1^{+} $$ -maps and tested in seven testcases. The performance of the pulses was analyzed using the coefficient of variation (CV) in the 3D heart volumes. The 3D gradient-echo (GRE) scans were acquired for the seven testcases to qualitatively validate theB 1 + $$ {\mathrm{B}}_1^{+} $$ -predictions.

RESULTS

Single- and double-frequency optimized pulses achieved homogeneity in flip angle (FA) for the frequencies they were optimized for, while the broadband pulses achieved uniformity in FA across a 1300 Hz frequency range.

CONCLUSION

Broadband TP and UP can be used for homogeneous excitation of the heart volume across a 1300 Hz frequency range, including the water and the main six fat peaks, or with longer pulse durations and higher FAs for a smaller transmit bandwidth. Moreover, despite large inter-volunteer variations, broadband UP can be used for calibration-free 3D heart FA homogenization in time-critical situations.

Three-dimensional sector-wise golden angle-improved k-space uniformity after electrocardiogram binning

PURPOSE

To develop and evaluate a 3D sector-wise golden-angle (3D-SWIG) profile ordering scheme for cardiovascular MR cine imaging that maintains high k-space uniformity after electrocardiogram (ECG) binning.

METHOD

Cardiovascular MR (CMR) was performed at 1.5 T. A balanced SSFP pulse sequence was implemented with a novel 3D-SWIG radial ordering, where k-space was divided into wedges, and each wedge was acquired in a separate heartbeat. The high uniformity of k-space coverage after physiological binning can be used to perform functional imaging using a very short acquisition. The 3D-SWIG was compared with two commonly used 3D radial trajectories for CMR (i.e., double golden angle and spiral phyllotaxis) in numerical simulations. Free-breathing 3D-SWIG and conventional breath-held 2D cine were compared in patients (n = 17) referred clinically for CMR. Quantitative comparison was performed based on left ventricular segmentation.

RESULTS

Numerical simulations showed that 3D-SWIG both required smaller steps between successive readouts and achieved better k-space sampling uniformity after binning than either the double golden angle or spiral phyllotaxis trajectories. In vivo evaluation showed that measurements of left ventricular ejection fraction calculated from a 48 heart-beat free-breathing 3D-SWIG acquisition were highly reproducible and agreed with breath-held 2D-Cartesian cine (mean ± SD difference of -3.1 ± 3.5% points).

CONCLUSIONS

The 3D-SWIG acquisition offers a simple solution for highly improved k-space uniformity after physiological binning. The feasibility of the 3D-SWIG method is demonstrated in this study through whole-heart cine imaging during free breathing with an acquisition time of less than 1 min.

Cardio-respiratory motion-corrected 3D cardiac water-fat MRI using model-based image reconstruction

PURPOSE

Myocardial fat infiltrations are associated with a range of cardiomyopathies. The purpose of this study was to perform cardio-respiratory motion-correction for model-based water-fat separation to image fatty infiltrations of the heart in a free-breathing, non-cardiac-triggered high-resolution 3D MRI acquisition.

METHODS

Data were acquired in nine patients using a free-breathing, non-cardiac-triggered high-resolution 3D Dixon gradient-echo sequence and radial phase encoding trajectory. Motion correction was combined with a model-based water-fat reconstruction approach. Respiratory and cardiac motion models were estimated using a dual-mode registration algorithm incorporating both motion-resolved water and fat information. Qualitative comparisons of fat structures were made between 2D clinical routine reference scans and reformatted 3D motion-corrected images. To evaluate the effect of motion correction the local sharpness of epicardial fat structures was analyzed for motion-averaged and motion-corrected fat images.

RESULTS

The reformatted 3D motion-corrected reconstructions yielded qualitatively comparable fat structures and fat structure sharpness in the heart as the standard 2D breath-hold. Respiratory motion correction improved the local sharpness on average by 32% ± 24% with maximum improvements of 81% and cardiac motion correction increased the sharpness further by another 15% ± 11% with maximum increases of 31%. One patient showed a fat infiltration in the myocardium and cardio-respiratory motion correction was able to improve its visualization in 3D.

CONCLUSION

The 3D water-fat separated cardiac images were acquired during free-breathing and in a clinically feasible and predictable scan time. Compared to a motion-averaged reconstruction an increase in sharpness of fat structures by 51% ± 27% using the presented motion correction approach was observed for nine patients.

Respiration induced B 1 + changes and their impact on universal and tailored 3D kT-point parallel transmission pulses for 7T cardiac imaging

PURPOSE

Human heart imaging at ultra-high fields is highly challenging because of respiratory motion-induced artefacts and spatially heterogeneous B 1 + profiles. This work demonstrates that respiration resolved 3D B 1 + -maps can be used with a dedicated tailored and universal parallel transmission (pTx) pulse design to compensate respiration related B 1 + changes in subjects performing shallow and deep breathing (SB/DB).

METHODS

Three-dimensional (3D) B 1 + -maps of the thorax were acquired in 31 subjects under SB and in 15 subjects under SB and DB. Different universal and tailored non-selective pTx pulses were designed from non-respiration resolved (NRR) and respiration resolved (RR) reconstructions of the SB/DB B 1 + -maps. The performance of all pulses was tested with RR-SB/DB B 1 + -maps. Respiration-robust tailored and universal pulses were applied in vivo in 5 subjects at 7T in 3D gradient-echo free-breathing scans.

RESULTS

All optimized pTx pulses performed well for SB. For DB, however, only the universal and the tailored respiration-robust pulses achieved homogeneous flip angles (FAs) in all subjects and across all respiration states, whereas the tailored respiration-specific pulses resulted in a higher FA variation. The respiration-robust universal pulse resulted in an average coefficient of variation in the FA maps of 12.6% compared to 8.2% achieved by tailored respiration-robust pulses. In vivo measurements at 7T demonstrate the benefits of using respiration-robust pulses for DB.

CONCLUSION

Universal and tailored respiration-robust pTx pulses based on RR B 1 + -maps are highly preferred to achieve 3D heart FA homogenization at 7T when subjects perform DB, whereas universal and tailored pulses based on NRR B 1 + -maps are sufficient when subjects perform SB.

Motion estimation and correction for simultaneous PET/MR using SIRF and CIL

SIRF is a powerful PET/MR image reconstruction research tool for processing data and developing new algorithms. In this research, new developments to SIRF are presented, with focus on motion estimation and correction. SIRF's recent inclusion of the adjoint of the resampling operator allows gradient propagation through resampling, enabling the MCIR technique. Another enhancement enabled registering and resampling of complex images, suitable for MRI. Furthermore, SIRF's integration with the optimization library CIL enables the use of novel algorithms. Finally, SPM is now supported, in addition to NiftyReg, for registration. Results of MR and PET MCIR reconstructions are presented, using FISTA and PDHG, respectively. These demonstrate the advantages of incorporating motion correction and variational and structural priors. This article is part of the theme issue 'Synergistic tomographic image reconstruction: part 2'.

Calibration-free pTx of the human heart at 7T via 3D universal pulses

PURPOSE

MRI at ultra-high fields in the human body is highly challenging and requires lengthy calibration times to compensate for spatially heterogeneous B 1 + profiles. This study investigates the feasibility of using pre-computed universal pulses for calibration-free homogeneous 3D flip angle distribution in the human heart at 7T.

METHODS

Twenty-two channel-wise 3D B 1 + data sets were acquired under free-breathing in 19 subjects to generate a library for an offline universal pulse (UP) design (group 1: 12 males [M] and 7 females [F], 21-66 years, 19.8-28.3 kg/m² ). Three of these subjects (2M/1F, 21-33 years, 20.8-23.6 kg/m² ) were re-scanned on different days. A 4kT-points UP optimized for the 22 channel-wise 3D B 1 + data sets in group 1 (UP22-4kT) is proposed and applied at 7T in 9 new and unseen subjects (group 2: 4M/5F, 25-56 years, 19.5-35.3 kg/m² ). Multiple tailored and universal static and dynamic parallel-transmit (pTx) pulses were designed and evaluated for different permutations of the B 1 + data sets in group 1 and 2.

RESULTS

The proposed UP22-4kT provides low B 1 + variation in all subjects, seen and unseen, without severe signal drops. Experimental data at 7T acquired with UP22-4kT shows comparable image quality as data acquired with tailored-4kT pulses and demonstrates successful calibration-free pTx of the human heart.

CONCLUSION

UP22-4kT allows for calibration-free homogeneous flip angle distributions across the human heart at 7T. Large inter-subject variations because of sex, age, and body mass index are well tolerated. The proposed universal pulse removes the need for lengthy (10-15 min) calibration scans and therefore has the potential to bring body imaging at 7T closer to the clinical application.

Evaluation of synergistic image registration for motion-corrected coronary NaF-PET-MR

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is caused by the formation of plaques in the coronary arteries and is one of the most common cardiovascular diseases. NaF-PET can be used to assess plaque composition, which could be important for therapy planning. One of the main challenges of NaF-PET is cardiac and respiratory motion which can strongly impair diagnostic accuracy. In this study, we investigated the use of a synergistic image registration approach which combined motion-resolved MR and PET data to estimate cardiac and respiratory motion. This motion estimation could then be used to improve the NaF-PET image quality. The approach was evaluated with numerical simulations and in vivo scans of patients suffering from CAD. In numerical simulations, it was shown, that combining MR and PET information can improve the accuracy of motion estimation by more than 15%. For the in vivo scans, the synergistic image registration led to an improvement in uptake visualization. This is the first study to assess the benefit of combining MR and NaF-PET for cardiac and respiratory motion estimation. Further patient evaluation is required to fully evaluate the potential of this approach. This article is part of the theme issue 'Synergistic tomographic image reconstruction: part 1'.

Spatiotemporal Flexible Sparse Reconstruction for Rapid Dynamic Contrast-enhanced MRI

Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) is a tissue perfusion imaging technique. Some versatile free-breathing DCE-MRI techniques combining compressed sensing (CS) and parallel imaging with golden-angle radial sampling have been developed to improve motion robustness with high spatial and temporal resolution. These methods have demonstrated good diagnostic performance in clinical setting, but the reconstruction quality will degrade at high acceleration rates and overall reconstruction time remains long. In this paper, we proposed a new parallel CS reconstruction model for DCE-MRI that enforces flexible weighted sparse constraint along both spatial and temporal dimensions. Weights were introduced to flexibly adjust the importance of time and space sparsity, and we derived a fast-thresholding algorithm which was proven to be simple and efficient for solving the proposed reconstruction model. Results on both the brain tumor DCE and liver DCE show that, at relatively high acceleration factor of fast sampling, lowest reconstruction error and highest image structural similarity are obtained by the proposed method. Besides, the proposed method achieves faster reconstruction for liver datasets and better physiological measures are also obtained on tumor images.

Respiratory motion correction for enhanced quantification of hepatic lesions in simultaneous PET and DCE-MR imaging

Simultaneous positron-emission tomography (PET)-magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is a hybrid technique in oncological hepatic imaging combining soft-tissue and functional contrast of dynamic contrast enhanced MR (DCE-MR) with metabolic information from PET. In this context, respiratory motion represents a major challenge by introducing blurring, artifacts and misregistration in the liver. In this work, we propose a free-breathing 3D non-rigid respiratory motion correction framework for simultaneously acquired DCE-MR and PET data, which makes use of higher spatial resolution MR data to derive motion information used directly during image reconstruction to minimize image blurring and motion artifacts. The main aim was to increase contrast of hepatic metastases to improve their detection and characterization. DCE-MR data were acquired at 3T through a golden radial phase encoding scheme, enabling derivation of motion fields. These were used in the motion compensated image reconstruction of DCE-MR time-series (48 time-points, 6 s temporal resolution, 1.5 mm isotropic spatial resolution) and 3D PET activity map, which was subsequently interpolated to the DCE-MR resolution. The extended Tofts model was fitted to DCE-MR data, obtaining functional parametric maps related to perfusion such as the endothelial permeability (Kt). Fifty-seven hepatic metastases were identified and analyzed. Quantitative evaluations of motion correction in PET images demonstrated average percentage increases of 16% ± 5% (mean ± SD) in Contrast (C), 18% ± 6% in SUV_meanand 14% ± 2% in SUV_max, while DCE-MR andKtscored contrast-to-noise-ratio increases of 64% ± 3% and 90% ± 6%, respectively. Motion-corrected data visually showed improved image contrast of hepatic metastases and effectively reduced blurring and motion artefacts. Scatter plots of SUV_meanversusKtsuggested that the proposed framework improved differentiation ofKtmeasurements. The presented motion correction framework for simultaneously acquired PET-DCE-MR data provides accurately aligned images with increased contrast of hepatic lesions allowing for improved detection and characterization.

Three-dimensional static and dynamic parallel transmission of the human heart at 7 T

Three-dimensional (3D) human heart imaging at ultra-high fields is highly challenging due to respiratory and cardiac motion-induced artifacts as well as spatially heterogeneous B1+ profiles. In this study, we investigate the feasibility of applying 3D flip angle (FA) homogenization targeting the whole heart via static phase-only and dynamic kT-point in vivo parallel transmission at 7 T. 3D B1+ maps of the thorax were acquired under free breathing in eight subjects to compute parallel transmission pulses that improve excitation homogeneity in the human heart. To analyze the number of kT-points required, excitation homogeneity and radiofrequency (RF) power were compared using different regions of interest in six subjects with different body mass index (BMI) values of 20-34 kg/m² for a wide range of regularization parameters. One subset of the optimized subject-specific pulses was applied in vivo on a 7 T scanner for six subjects in Cartesian 3D breath-hold scans as well as in two subjects in a radial phase-encoded 3D free-breathing scan. Across all subjects, 3-4 kT-points achieved a good tradeoff between RF power and nominal FA homogeneity. For subjects with a BMI in the normal range, the 4 kT-point pulses reliably improved the coefficient of variation by less than 10% compared with less than 25% achieved by static phase-only parallel transmission. in vivo measurements on a 7 T scanner validated the B1+ estimations and the pulse design, despite neglecting ΔB₀ in the optimizations and Bloch simulations. This study demonstrates in vivo that kT-point pTx pulses are highly suitable for mitigating nominal FA heterogeneities across the entire 3D heart volume at 7 T. Furthermore, 3-4 kT-points demonstrate a practical tradeoff between nominal FA heterogeneity mitigation and RF power.

3D Free-breathing multichannel absolute B 1 + Mapping in the human body at 7T

PURPOSE

To introduce and investigate a method for free-breathing three-dimensional (3D) B 1 + mapping of the human body at ultrahigh field (UHF), which can be used to generate homogenous flip angle (FA) distributions in the human body at UHF.

METHODS

A 3D relative B 1 + mapping sequence with a radial phase-encoding (RPE) k-space trajectory was developed and applied in 11 healthy subjects at 7T. An RPE-based actual flip angle mapping method was applied with a dedicated B 1 + shim setting to calibrate the relative B 1 + maps yielding absolute B 1 + maps of the individual transmit channels. The method was evaluated in a motion phantom and by multidimensional in vivo measurements. Additionally, 3D gradient echo scans with and without static phase-only B 1 + shims were used to qualitatively validate B 1 + shim predictions.

RESULTS

The phantom validation revealed good agreement for B 1 + maps between dynamic measurement and static reference acquisition. The proposed 3D method was successfully validated in vivo by comparing magnitude and phase distributions with a 2D Cartesian reference. 3D B 1 + maps free from visible motion artifacts were successfully acquired for 11 subjects with body mass indexes ranging from 19 kg/m² to 34 kg/m² . 3D respiration-resolved absolute B 1 + maps indicated FA differences between inhalation and exhalation up to 15% for one channel and up to 24% for combined channels for shallow breathing.

CONCLUSION

The proposed method provides respiration-resolved absolute 3D B 1 + maps of the human body at UHF, which enables the investigation and development of 3D B 1 + shimming and parallel transmission methods to further enhance body imaging at UHF.

Flexible numerical simulation framework for dynamic PET-MR data

This paper presents a simulation framework for dynamic PET-MR. The main focus of this framework is to provide motion-resolved MR and PET data and ground truth motion information. This can be used in the optimisation and quantitative evaluation of image registration and in assessing the error propagation due to inaccuracies in motion estimation in complex motion-compensated reconstruction algorithms. Contrast and tracer kinetics can also be simulated and are available as ground truth information. To closely emulate medical examination, input and output of the simulation are files in standardised open-source raw data formats. This enables the use of existing raw data as a template input and ensures seamless integration of the output into existing reconstruction pipelines. The proposed framework was validated in PET-MR and image registration applications. It was used to simulate a FDG-PET-MR scan with cardiac and respiratory motion. Ground truth motion information could be utilised to optimise parameters for PET and synergistic PET-MR image registration. In addition, a free-breathing dynamic contrast enhancement (DCE) abdominal scan of a patient with hepatic lesions was simulated. In order to correct for breathing motion, a motion-corrected image reconstruction scheme was used and a Toft's model was fit to the DCE data to obtain quantitative DCE-MRI parameters. Utilising the ground truth motion information, the dependency of quantitative DCE-MR images on the accuracy of the motion estimation was evaluated. We demonstrated that respiratory motion had to be available with an average accuracy of at least the spatial resolution of the DCE-MR images in order to ensure an improvement in lesions visualisation and quantification compared to no motion correction. The proposed framework provides a valuable tool with a wide range of scientific PET and MR applications and will be available as part of the open-source project Synergistic Image Reconstruction Framework (SIRF).

Self-calibrated interpolation of non-Cartesian data with GRAPPA in parallel imaging

PURPOSE

To develop a non-Cartesian k-space reconstruction method using self-calibrated region-specific interpolation kernels for highly accelerated acquisitions.

METHODS

In conventional non-Cartesian GRAPPA with through-time GRAPPA (TT-GRAPPA), the use of region-specific interpolation kernels has demonstrated improved reconstruction quality in dynamic imaging for highly accelerated acquisitions. However, TT-GRAPPA requires the acquisition of a large number of separate calibration scans. To reduce the overall imaging time, we propose Self-calibrated Interpolation of Non-Cartesian data with GRAPPA (SING) to self-calibrate region-specific interpolation kernels from dynamic undersampled measurements. The SING method synthesizes calibration data to adapt to the distinct shape of each region-specific interpolation kernel geometry, and uses a novel local k-space regularization through an extension of TT-GRAPPA. This calibration approach is used to reconstruct non-Cartesian images at high acceleration rates while mitigating noise amplification. The reconstruction quality of SING is compared with conjugate-gradient SENSE and TT-GRAPPA in numerical phantoms and in vivo cine data sets.

RESULTS

In both numerical phantom and in vivo cine data sets, SING offers visually and quantitatively similar reconstruction quality to TT-GRAPPA, and provides improved reconstruction quality over conjugate-gradient SENSE. Furthermore, temporal fidelity in SING and TT-GRAPPA is similar for the same acceleration rates. G-factor evaluation over the heart shows that SING and TT-GRAPPA provide similar noise amplification at moderate and high rates.

CONCLUSION

The proposed SING reconstruction enables significant improvement of acquisition efficiency for calibration data, while matching the reconstruction performance of TT-GRAPPA.

3D nonrigid motion correction for quantitative assessment of hepatic lesions in DCE-MRI

Purpose

To provide nonrigid respiratory motion‐corrected DCE‐MRI images with isotropic resolution of 1.5 mm, full coverage of abdomen, and covering the entire uptake curve with a temporal resolution of 6 seconds, for the quantitative assessment of hepatic lesions.

Methods

3D DCE‐MRI data were acquired at 3 T during free breathing for 5 minutes using a 3D T₁‐weighted golden‐angle radial phase‐encoding sequence. Nonrigid respiratory motion information was extracted and used in motion‐corrected image reconstruction to obtain high‐quality DCE‐MRI images with temporal resolution of 6 seconds and isotropic resolution of 1.5 mm. An extended Tofts model was fitted to the dynamic data sets, yielding quantitative parametric maps of endothelial permeability using the hepatic artery as input function. The proposed approach was evaluated in 11 patients (52 ± 17 years, 5 men) with and without known hepatic lesions, undergoing DCE‐MRI.

Results

Respiratory motion produced artifacts and misalignment between dynamic volumes (lesion average motion amplitude of 3.82 ± 1.11 mm). Motion correction minimized artifacts and improved average contrast‐to‐noise ratio of hepatic lesions in late phase by 47% (p < .01). Quantitative endothelial permeability maps of motion‐corrected data demonstrated enhanced visibility of different pathologies (e.g., metastases, hemangiomas, cysts, necrotic tumor substructure) and showed improved contrast‐to‐noise ratio by 62% (p < .01) compared with uncorrected data.

Conclusion

3D nonrigid motion correction in DCE‐MRI improves both visual and quantitative assessment of hepatic lesions by ensuring accurate alignment between 3D DCE images and reducing motion blurring. This approach does not require breath‐holds and minimizes scan planning by using a large FOV with isotropic resolution.

A post-processing method based on interphase motion correction and averaging to improve image quality of 4D magnetic resonance imaging: a clinical feasibility study

METHODS:

Nine patients (seven pancreas, one liver, and one lung) were recruited. 4D-MRI was performed using two prototype k-space sorted techniques, stack-of-stars (SOS) and koosh-ball (KB) acquisitions. Post-processing using MoCoAve was implemented for both methods. Image quality score, apparent SNR (aSNR), sharpness, motion trajectory and standard deviation (σ_GTV) of the gross tumor volumes were compared between original and MoCoAve image sets.

RESULTS:

All subjects successfully underwent 4D-MRI scans and MoCoAve was performed on all data sets. Significantly higher image quality scores (2.64 ± 0.39 vs 1.18 ± 0.34, p = 0.001) and aSNR (37.6 ± 15.3 vs 18.1 ± 5.7, p = 0.001) was observed in the MoCoAve images when compared to the original images. High correlation in tumor motion trajectories in the superoinferior direction (SI: 0.91 ± 0.08) and weaker in the anteroposterior (AP: 0.51 ± 0.44) and mediolateral (ML: 0.37 ± 0.23) directions, similar image sharpness (0.367 ± 0.068 vs 0.369 ± 0.072, p = 0.805), and minimal average absolute difference (0.47 ± 0.34  mm) of the motion trajectory profiles was found between the two image sets. The σ_GTV in pancreas patients was significantly (p = 0.039) lower in MoCoAve images (1.48 ± 1.35  cm3) than in the original images (2.17 ± 1.31  cm3).

CONCLUSION:

MoCoAve using interphase motion correction and averaging has shown promise as a post-processing method for improving k-space sorted (SOS and KB) 4D-MRI image quality in thoracic and abdominal cancer patients.

ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE:

The proposed method is an image based post-processing method that could be applied to many k-space sorted 4D-MRI methods for improved image quality and signal-to-noise ratio while preserving image sharpness and respiratory motion fidelity. It is a useful technique for the radiotherapy planning community who are interested in using 4D-MRI but aren't satisfied with their current MR image quality.

Rapid dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI for small animals at 7T using 3D ultra-short echo time and golden-angle radial sparse parallel MRI

PURPOSE

To develop a rapid dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI method with high spatial and temporal resolution for small-animal imaging at 7 Tesla.

METHODS

An ultra-short echo time (UTE) pulse sequence using a 3D golden-angle radial sampling was implemented to achieve isotropic spatial resolution with flexible temporal resolution. Continuously acquired radial spokes were grouped into subsets for image reconstruction using a multicoil compressed sensing approach (Golden-angle RAdial Sparse Parallel; GRASP). The proposed 3D-UTE-GRASP method with high temporal and spatial resolutions was tested using 7 mice with GL261 intracranial glioma models.

RESULTS

Iterative reconstruction with different temporal resolutions and regularization factors λ showed that, in all cases, the cost function decreased to less than 2.5% of its starting value within 20 iterations. The difference between the time-intensity curves of 3D-UTE-GRASP and nonuniform fast Fourier transform (NUFFT) images was minimal when λ was 1% of the maximum signal intensity of the initial NUFFT images. The 3D isotropic images were used to generate pharmacokinetic parameter maps to show the detailed images of the tumor characteristics in 3D and also to show longitudinal changes during tumor growth.

CONCLUSION

This feasibility study demonstrated that the proposed 3D-UTE-GRASP method can be used for effective measurement of the 3D spatial heterogeneity of tumor pharmacokinetic parameters.

A New Joint-Blade SENSE Reconstruction for Accelerated PROPELLER MRI

PROPELLER technique is widely used in MRI examinations for being motion insensitive, but it prolongs scan time and is restricted mainly to T2 contrast. Parallel imaging can accelerate PROPELLER and enable more flexible contrasts. Here, we propose a multi-step joint-blade (MJB) SENSE reconstruction to reduce the noise amplification in parallel imaging accelerated PROPELLER. MJB SENSE utilizes the fact that PROPELLER blades contain sharable information and blade-combined images can serve as regularization references. It consists of three steps. First, conventional blade-combined images are obtained using the conventional simple single-blade (SSB) SENSE, which reconstructs each blade separately. Second, the blade-combined images are employed as regularization for blade-wise noise reduction. Last, with virtual high-frequency data resampled from the previous step, all blades are jointly reconstructed to form the final images. Simulations were performed to evaluate the proposed MJB SENSE for noise reduction and motion correction. MJB SENSE was also applied to both T2-weighted and T1-weighted in vivo brain data. Compared to SSB SENSE, MJB SENSE greatly reduced the noise amplification at various acceleration factors, leading to increased image SNR in all simulation and in vivo experiments, including T1-weighted imaging with short echo trains. Furthermore, it preserved motion correction capability and was computationally efficient.

Cardiac and Respiratory Motion Correction for Simultaneous Cardiac PET/MR

Cardiac PET is a versatile imaging technique providing important diagnostic information about ischemic heart diseases. Respiratory and cardiac motion of the heart can strongly impair image quality and therefore diagnostic accuracy of cardiac PET scans. The aim of this study was to investigate a new cardiac PET/MR approach providing respiratory and cardiac motion-compensated MR and PET images in less than 5 min. Methods: Free-breathing 3-dimensional MR data were acquired and retrospectively binned into multiple respiratory and cardiac motion states. Three-dimensional cardiac and respiratory motion fields were obtained with a nonrigid registration algorithm and used in motion-compensated MR and PET reconstructions to improve image quality. The improvement in image quality and diagnostic accuracy of the technique was assessed in simultaneous ¹⁸F-FDG PET/MR scans of a canine model of myocardial infarct and was demonstrated in a human subject. Results: MR motion fields were successfully used to compensate for in vivo cardiac motion, leading to improvements in full width at half maximum of the canine myocardium of 13% ± 5%, similar to cardiac gating but with a 90% ± 57% higher contrast-to-noise ratio between myocardium and blood. Motion correction led to an improvement in MR image quality in all subjects, with an increase in sharpness of the canine coronary arteries of 85% ± 72%. A functional assessment showed good agreement with standard MR cine scans with a difference in ejection fraction of -2% ± 3%. MR-based respiratory and cardiac motion information was used to improve the PET image quality of a human in vivo scan. Conclusion: The MR technique presented here provides both diagnostic and motion information that can be used to improve MR and PET image quality. Reliable respiratory and cardiac motion correction could make cardiac PET results more reproducible.

Use of a semi-automated cardiac segmentation tool improves reproducibility and speed of segmentation of contaminated right heart magnetic resonance angiography

Three-dimensional printing has an increasing number of clinical applications in pediatric cardiology. Time required for dataset segmentation and conversion to stereolithography (STL) format remains a significant limitation. We investigated the impact of semi-automated cardiovascular-specific segmentation software on time and reproducibility of segmentation. Magnetic resonance angiograms (MRAs) of 19 patients undergoing intervention for right ventricular outflow lesions were segmented to demonstrate the right heart. STLs were created by two independent clinicians using semi-automated cardiovascular segmentation (SAS) and traditional manual segmentation (MS). Time was recorded and geometric STL disagreement was determined (0 % = no disagreement, 100 % = complete disagreement). MRA datasets were categorized as clean when only right heart structures were present in the MRA, or contaminated when left heart structures were also present and required removal. Eighteen (seven clean and 11 contaminated) cases were successfully segmented with both methods. Time to STL for clean datasets was faster with MS than SAS [median 209 s (IQR 192-252) vs. 296 s (272-317), p = 0.018] while contaminated datasets were faster with SAS [455 s (384-561) vs. 866 s (310-1429), p = 0.033]. Interobserver STL geometric disagreement was significantly lower using SAS than MS overall (0.70 ± 1.15 % vs. 1.31 ± 1.52 %, p = 0.030), and for the contaminated subset (0.81 ± 1.08 % vs. 1.75 ± 1.57 %, p = 0.036). Most geometric disagreement occurred at areas where left heart contamination was removed. Semi-automated segmentation was faster and more reproducible for contaminated datasets, while MS was faster but equally reproducible for clean datasets. Semi-automated segmentation methods are preferable for contaminated datasets and continued refinement of these tools should be supported.

Accelerating dual cardiac phase images using undersampled radial phase encoding trajectories

A three-dimensional dual-cardiac-phase (3D-DCP) scan has been proposed to acquire two data sets of the whole heart and great vessels during the end-diastolic and end-systolic cardiac phases in a single free-breathing scan. This method has shown accurate assessment of cardiac anatomy and function but is limited by long acquisition times. This work proposes to accelerate the acquisition and reconstruction of 3D-DCP scans by exploiting redundant information of the outer k-space regions of both cardiac phases. This is achieved using a modified radial-phase-encoding trajectory and gridding reconstruction with uniform coil combination. The end-diastolic acquisition trajectory was angularly shifted with respect to the end-systolic phase. Initially, a fully-sampled 3D-DCP scan was acquired to determine the optimal percentage of the outer k-space data that can be combined between cardiac phases. Thereafter, prospectively undersampled data were reconstructed based on this percentage. As gold standard images, the undersampled data were also reconstructed using iterative SENSE. To validate the method, image quality assessments and a cardiac volume analysis were performed. The proposed method was tested in thirteen healthy volunteers (mean age, 30years). Prospectively undersampled data (R=4) reconstructed with 50% combination led high quality images. There were no significant differences in the image quality and in the cardiac volume analysis between our method and iterative SENSE. In addition, the proposed approach reduced the reconstruction time from 40min to 1min. In conclusion, the proposed method obtains 3D-DCP scans with an image quality comparable to those reconstructed with iterative SENSE, and within a clinically acceptable reconstruction time.

Accelerated motion corrected three-dimensional abdominal MRI using total variation regularized SENSE reconstruction

PURPOSE

Develop a nonrigid motion corrected reconstruction for highly accelerated free-breathing three-dimensional (3D) abdominal images without external sensors or additional scans.

METHODS

The proposed method accelerates the acquisition by undersampling and performs motion correction directly in the reconstruction using a general matrix description of the acquisition. Data are acquired using a self-gated 3D golden radial phase encoding trajectory, enabling a two stage reconstruction to estimate and then correct motion of the same data. In the first stage total variation regularized iterative SENSE is used to reconstruct highly undersampled respiratory resolved images. A nonrigid registration of these images is performed to estimate the complex motion in the abdomen. In the second stage, the estimated motion fields are incorporated in a general matrix reconstruction, which uses total variation regularization and incorporates k-space data from multiple respiratory positions. The proposed approach was tested on nine healthy volunteers and compared against a standard gated reconstruction using measures of liver sharpness, gradient entropy, visual assessment of image sharpness and overall image quality by two experts.

RESULTS

The proposed method achieves similar quality to the gated reconstruction with nonsignificant differences for liver sharpness (1.18 and 1.00, respectively), gradient entropy (1.00 and 1.00), visual score of image sharpness (2.22 and 2.44), and visual rank of image quality (3.33 and 3.39). An average reduction of the acquisition time from 102 s to 39 s could be achieved with the proposed method.

CONCLUSION

In vivo results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method showing similar image quality to the standard gated reconstruction while using data corresponding to a significantly reduced acquisition time. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Society for Magnetic Resonance.

Highly accelerated dynamic contrast enhanced imaging

PURPOSE

Dynamic contrast-enhanced imaging provides unique physiological information, notably the endothelial permeability (K(trans)), and may improve the diagnosis and management of multiple pathologies. Current acquisition methods provide limited spatial-temporal resolution and field-of-view, often preventing characterization of the entire pathology and precluding measurement of the arterial input function. We present a method for highly accelerated dynamic imaging and demonstrate its utility for dynamic contrast-enhanced modeling.

METHODS

We propose a novel Poisson ellipsoid sampling scheme and enforce multiple spatial and temporal l1-norm constraints during image reconstruction. Retrospective and prospective analyses were performed to validate the approach.

RESULTS

Retrospectively, no mean bias or diverging trend was observed as the acceleration rate was increased from 3× to 18×; less than 10% error was measured in K(trans) at any individual rates in this range. Prospectively accelerated images at a rate of 36× enabled full brain coverage with 0.94 × 0.94 × 1.9 mm(3) spatial and 4.1 s temporal resolutions. Images showed no visible degradation and provided accurate K(trans) values when compared to a clinical population.

CONCLUSION

Highly accelerated dynamic MRI using compressed sensing and parallel imaging provides accurate permeability modeling and enables full brain, high resolution acquisitions.

GOCART: GOlden-angle CArtesian randomized time-resolved 3D MRI

PURPOSE

To develop and evaluate a novel 3D Cartesian sampling scheme which is well suited for time-resolved 3D MRI using parallel imaging and compressed sensing.

METHODS

The proposed sampling scheme, termed GOlden-angle CArtesian Randomized Time-resolved (GOCART) 3D MRI, is based on golden angle (GA) Cartesian sampling, with random sampling of the ky-kz phase encode locations along each Cartesian radial spoke. This method was evaluated in conjunction with constrained reconstruction of retrospectively and prospectively undersampled in-vivo dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) MRI data and simulated phantom data.

RESULTS

In in-vivo retrospective studies and phantom simulations, images reconstructed from phase encodes defined by GOCART were equal to or superior to those with Poisson disc or GA sampling schemes. Typical GOCART sampling tables were generated in <100ms. GOCART has also been successfully utilized prospectively to produce clinically valuable whole-brain DCE-MRI images.

CONCLUSION

GOCART is a practical and efficient sampling scheme for time-resolved 3D MRI. It shows great potential for highly accelerated DCE-MRI and is well suited to modern reconstruction methods such as parallel imaging and compressed sensing.

A 3D MR-acquisition scheme for nonrigid bulk motion correction in simultaneous PET-MR

PURPOSE

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a highly sensitive medical imaging technique commonly used to detect and assess tumor lesions. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides high resolution anatomical images with different contrasts and a range of additional information important for cancer diagnosis. Recently, simultaneous PET-MR systems have been released with the promise to provide complementary information from both modalities in a single examination. Due to long scan times, subject nonrigid bulk motion, i.e., changes of the patient's position on the scanner table leading to nonrigid changes of the patient's anatomy, during data acquisition can negatively impair image quality and tracer uptake quantification. A 3D MR-acquisition scheme is proposed to detect and correct for nonrigid bulk motion in simultaneously acquired PET-MR data.

METHODS

A respiratory navigated three dimensional (3D) MR-acquisition with Radial Phase Encoding (RPE) is used to obtain T1- and T2-weighted data with an isotropic resolution of 1.5 mm. Healthy volunteers are asked to move the abdomen two to three times during data acquisition resulting in overall 19 movements at arbitrary time points. The acquisition scheme is used to retrospectively reconstruct dynamic 3D MR images with different temporal resolutions. Nonrigid bulk motion is detected and corrected in this image data. A simultaneous PET acquisition is simulated and the effect of motion correction is assessed on image quality and standardized uptake values (SUV) for lesions with different diameters.

RESULTS

Six respiratory gated 3D data sets with T1- and T2-weighted contrast have been obtained in healthy volunteers. All bulk motion shifts have successfully been detected and motion fields describing the transformation between the different motion states could be obtained with an accuracy of 1.71 ± 0.29 mm. The PET simulation showed errors of up to 67% in measured SUV due to bulk motion which could be reduced to less than 10% with the proposed motion compensation approach.

CONCLUSIONS

A MR acquisition scheme which yields both high resolution 3D anatomical data and highly accurate nonrigid motion information without an increase in scan time is presented. The proposed method leads to a strong improvement in both MR and PET image quality and ensures an accurate assessment of tracer uptake.

Four-dimensional MRI using three-dimensional radial sampling with respiratory self-gating to characterize temporal phase-resolved respiratory motion in the abdomen

PURPOSE

To develop a four-dimensional MRI (4D-MRI) technique to characterize the average respiratory tumor motion for abdominal radiotherapy planning.

METHODS

A continuous spoiled gradient echo sequence was implemented with 3D radial trajectory and 1D self-gating for respiratory motion detection. Data were retrospectively sorted into different respiratory phases based on their temporal locations within a respiratory cycle, and each phase was reconstructed by means of a self-calibrating CG-SENSE program. Motion phantom, healthy volunteer and patient studies were performed to validate the respiratory motion detected by the proposed method against that from a 2D real-time protocol.

RESULTS

The proposed method successfully visualized the respiratory motion in phantom and human subjects. The 4D-MRI and real-time 2D-MRI yielded comparable superior-inferior (SI) motion amplitudes (intraclass correlation = 0.935) with up-to one pixel mean absolute differences in SI displacements over 10 phases and high cross-correlation between phase-resolved displacements (phantom: 0.985; human: 0.937-0.985). Comparable anterior-posterior and left-right displacements of the tumor or gold fiducial between 4D and real-time 2D-MRI were also observed in the two patients, and the hysteresis effect was shown in their 3D trajectories.

CONCLUSION

We demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed 4D-MRI technique to characterize abdominal respiratory motion, which may provide valuable information for radiotherapy planning.

Comparison of image-based and reconstruction-based respiratory motion correction for golden radial phase encoding coronary MR angiography

PURPOSE

To evaluate two commonly used respiratory motion correction techniques for coronary magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) regarding their dependency on motion estimation accuracy and final image quality and to compare both methods to the respiratory gating approach used in clinical practice.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Ten healthy volunteers were scanned using a non-Cartesian radial phase encoding acquisition. Respiratory motion was corrected for coronary MRA according to two motion correction techniques, image-based (IMC) and reconstruction-based (RMC) respiratory motion correction. Both motion correction approaches were compared quantitatively and qualitatively against a reference standard navigator-based respiratory gating (RG) approach. Quantitative comparisons were performed regarding visible vessel length, vessel sharpness, and total acquisition time. Two experts carried out a visual scoring of image quality. Additionally, numerical simulations were performed to evaluate the effect of motion estimation inaccuracy on RMC and IMC.

RESULTS

RMC led to significantly better image quality than IMC (P's paired Student's t-test were smaller than 0.001 for vessel sharpness and visual scoring). RMC did not show a statistically significant difference compared to reference standard RG (vessel length [99% confidence interval]: 86.913 [83.097-95.015], P = 0.107; vessel sharpness: 0.640 [0.605-0.802], P = 0.012; visual scoring: 2.583 [2.410-3.424], P = 0.018) in terms of vessel visualization and image quality while reducing scan times by 56%. Simulations showed higher dependencies for RMC than for IMC on motion estimation inaccuracies.

CONCLUSION

RMC provides a similar image quality as the clinically used RG approach but almost halves the scan time and is independent of subjects' breathing patterns. Clinical validation of RMC is now desirable.

Free-breathing pediatric MRI with nonrigid motion correction and acceleration

PURPOSE

To develop and assess motion correction techniques for high-resolution pediatric abdominal volumetric magnetic resonance images acquired free-breathing with high scan efficiency.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

First, variable-density sampling and radial-like phase-encode ordering were incorporated into the 3D Cartesian acquisition. Second, intrinsic multichannel butterfly navigators were used to measure respiratory motion. Lastly, these estimates are applied for both motion-weighted data-consistency in a compressed sensing and parallel imaging reconstruction, and for nonrigid motion correction using a localized autofocusing framework. With Institutional Review Board approval and informed consent/assent, studies were performed on 22 consecutive pediatric patients. Two radiologists independently scored the images for overall image quality, degree of motion artifacts, and sharpness of hepatic vessels and the diaphragm. The results were assessed using paired Wilcoxon test and weighted kappa coefficient for interobserver agreements.

RESULTS

The complete procedure yielded significantly better overall image quality (mean score of 4.7 out of 5) when compared to using no correction (mean score of 3.4, P < 0.05) and to using motion-weighted accelerated imaging (mean score of 3.9, P < 0.05). With an average scan time of 28 seconds, the proposed method resulted in comparable image quality to conventional prospective respiratory-triggered acquisitions with an average scan time of 91 seconds (mean score of 4.5).

CONCLUSION

With the proposed methods, diagnosable high-resolution abdominal volumetric scans can be obtained from free-breathing data acquisitions.

Non-Cartesian parallel imaging reconstruction

Non-Cartesian parallel imaging has played an important role in reducing data acquisition time in MRI. The use of non-Cartesian trajectories can enable more efficient coverage of k-space, which can be leveraged to reduce scan times. These trajectories can be undersampled to achieve even faster scan times, but the resulting images may contain aliasing artifacts. Just as Cartesian parallel imaging can be used to reconstruct images from undersampled Cartesian data, non-Cartesian parallel imaging methods can mitigate aliasing artifacts by using additional spatial encoding information in the form of the nonhomogeneous sensitivities of multi-coil phased arrays. This review will begin with an overview of non-Cartesian k-space trajectories and their sampling properties, followed by an in-depth discussion of several selected non-Cartesian parallel imaging algorithms. Three representative non-Cartesian parallel imaging methods will be described, including Conjugate Gradient SENSE (CG SENSE), non-Cartesian generalized autocalibrating partially parallel acquisition (GRAPPA), and Iterative Self-Consistent Parallel Imaging Reconstruction (SPIRiT). After a discussion of these three techniques, several potential promising clinical applications of non-Cartesian parallel imaging will be covered.

Golden-angle radial sparse parallel MRI: combination of compressed sensing, parallel imaging, and golden-angle radial sampling for fast and flexible dynamic volumetric MRI

PURPOSE

To develop a fast and flexible free-breathing dynamic volumetric MRI technique, iterative Golden-angle RAdial Sparse Parallel MRI (iGRASP), that combines compressed sensing, parallel imaging, and golden-angle radial sampling.

METHODS

Radial k-space data are acquired continuously using the golden-angle scheme and sorted into time series by grouping an arbitrary number of consecutive spokes into temporal frames. An iterative reconstruction procedure is then performed on the undersampled time series where joint multicoil sparsity is enforced by applying a total-variation constraint along the temporal dimension. Required coil-sensitivity profiles are obtained from the time-averaged data.

RESULTS

iGRASP achieved higher acceleration capability than either parallel imaging or coil-by-coil compressed sensing alone. It enabled dynamic volumetric imaging with high spatial and temporal resolution for various clinical applications, including free-breathing dynamic contrast-enhanced imaging in the abdomen of both adult and pediatric patients, and in the breast and neck of adult patients.

CONCLUSION

The high performance and flexibility provided by iGRASP can improve clinical studies that require robustness to motion and simultaneous high spatial and temporal resolution. Magn Reson Med 72:707-717, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Distributed spirals: a new class of three-dimensional k-space trajectories

This work presents a new class of three-dimensional spiral based-trajectories for sampling magnetic resonance data. The distributed spirals trajectory efficiently traverses a cylinder or sphere or intermediate shape in k-space. The trajectory is shown to be nearly as efficient as a conventional stack of spirals trajectory in terms of scan time and signal-to-noise ratio, while reducing coherent aliasing in all three spatial directions and reducing Gibbs ringing due to the nature of collecting data from a sphere in k-space. The trajectory uses a single two-dimensional spiral waveform with the addition of a single orthogonal waveform which is scaled with each repetition, making it relatively easy to implement. Blurring from off-resonance only occurs in two dimensions due to the temporal nature of the sampling.

Time-resolved MR angiography of renal artery stenosis in a swine model at 3 Tesla using gadobutrol with digital subtraction angiography correlation

PURPOSE

To establish the minimum dose required for detection of renal artery stenosis using high temporal resolution, contrast enhanced MR angiography (MRA) in a porcine model.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Surgically created renal artery stenoses were imaged with 3 Tesla MR and digital subtraction angiography (DSA) in 12 swine in this IACUC approved protocol. Gadobutrol was injected intravenously at doses of 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 mL for time-resolved MRA (1.5 × 1.5 mm(2) spatial resolution). Region of interest analysis was performed together with stenosis assessment and qualitative evaluation by two blinded readers.

RESULTS

Mean signal to noise ratio (SNR) and contrast to noise ratio (CNR) values were statistically significantly less with the 0.5-mL protocol (P < 0.001). There were no statistically significant differences among the other evaluated doses. Both readers found 10/12 cases with the 0.5-mL protocol to be of inadequate diagnostic quality (κ = 1.0). All other scans were found to be adequate for diagnosis. Accuracies in distinguishing between mild/insignificant (<50%) and higher grade stenoses (>50%) were comparable among the higher-dose protocols (sensitivities 73-93%, specificities 62-100%).

CONCLUSION

Renal artery stenosis can be assessed with very low doses (~0.025 mmol/kg bodyweight) of a high concentration, high relaxivity gadolinium chelate formulation in a swine model, results which are promising with respect to limiting exposure to gadolinium based contrast agents.

Nonrigid motion modeling of the liver from 3-D undersampled self-gated golden-radial phase encoded MRI

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been commonly used for guiding and planning image guided interventions since it provides excellent soft tissue visualization of anatomy and allows motion modeling to predict the position of target tissues during the procedure. However, MRI-based motion modeling remains challenging due to the difficulty of acquiring multiple motion-free 3-D respiratory phases with adequate contrast and spatial resolution. Here, we propose a novel retrospective respiratory gating scheme from a 3-D undersampled high-resolution MRI acquisition combined with fast and robust image registrations to model the nonrigid deformation of the liver. The acquisition takes advantage of the recently introduced golden-radial phase encoding (G-RPE) trajectory. G-RPE is self-gated, i.e., the respiratory signal can be derived from the acquired data itself, and allows retrospective reconstructions of multiple respiratory phases at any arbitrary respiratory position. Nonrigid motion modeling is applied to predict the liver deformation of an average breathing cycle. The proposed approach was validated on 10 healthy volunteers. Motion model accuracy was assessed using similarity-, surface-, and landmark-based validation methods, demonstrating precise model predictions with an overall target registration error of TRE = 1.70 ± 0.94 mm which is within the range of the acquired resolution.

A framework for generalized reference image reconstruction methods including HYPR-LR, PR-FOCUSS, and k-t FOCUSS

PURPOSE

To investigate the relationships among highly constrained back projection (HYPR)-LR, projection reconstruction focal underdetermined system solver (PR-FOCUSS), and k-t FOCUSS by showing how each method relates to a generalized reference image reconstruction method. That is, the generalized series model employs a fixed reference image and multiplicative corrections-that model is extended here to consider reference images more broadly, both in image space and in transform spaces (x-t and x-f spaces), and that can evolve with iteration.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Theoretical relationships between the methods were derived. Computer simulations were done to compare HYPR-LR to one iteration of PR-FOCUSS. The generalized reference approaches applied in the x-t or x-f domain were compared using computer simulation, five cardiac cine imaging datasets, and six myocardial perfusion datasets.

RESULTS

PR-FOCUSS and HYPR-LR gave comparable errors, with PR-FOCUSS slightly outperforming HYPR-LR. The baseline image is important to the performance of k-t FOCUSS and x-t FOCUSS, as demonstrated by results from cardiac cine imaging. For cardiac perfusion reconstructions with the use of a temporal average image as the baseline image, k-t FOCUSS gave lower errors than x-t FOCUSS.

CONCLUSION

HYPR-LR and PR-FOCUSS are closely related: both work for radial sampling and use reference images in the x-t domain; HYPR-LR is an approximate implementation of the generalized reference framework, while PR-FOCUSS is a conjugate gradient implementation of the generalized reference framework. The superiority of generalized reference approaches applied in the x-t or x-f domain was sensitive to the characteristics of the acquired data and to the baseline image used.