Cardiac self-gating using blind source separation for 2D cine cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging.

PURPOSE: To develop and validate a new cardiac self-gating algorithm using blind source separation for 2D cine steady-state free precession (SSFP) imaging. METHODS: A standard cine SSFP sequence was modified so that the center point of k-space was sampled with each excitation. The center points of k-space were processed by 4 blind source separation methods, and used to detect heartbeats and assign k-space data to appropriate time points in the cardiac cycle. The proposed self-gating technique was prospectively validated in 8 patients against the standard electrocardiogram (ECG)-gating method by comparing the cardiac cycle lengths, image quality metrics, and ventricular volume measurements. RESULTS: There was close agreement between the cardiac cycle length using the ECG- and self-gating methods (bias 0.0 bpm, 95% limits of agreement ±2.1 bpm). The image quality metrics were not significantly different between the ECG- and self-gated images. The ventricular volumes, stroke volumes, and mass measured from self-gated images were all comparable with those from ECG-gated images (all biases <5%). CONCLUSION: The self-gating method yielded comparable cardiac cycle length, image quality, and ventricular measurements compared with standard ECG-gated cine imaging. It may simplify patient preparation, be more robust when there is arrhythmia, and allow cardiac gating at higher field strengths.

SENSE reconstruction for multiband EPI including slice-dependent N/2 ghost correction.

PURPOSE: Sensitivity encoding (SENSE) reconstruction of multiband echo planar imaging (EPI) may cause artifacts when simultaneously excited slices require different phase correction to remove the EPI-specific ghost shifted by half of the matrix size (N). We propose a simplified solution of this problem that combines SENSE unfolding with the EPI phase correction in the image domain. THEORY AND METHODS: Slice-dependent phase correction was included in equations linking folded slice images reconstructed separately from even and odd echoes of all receivers with the true images of each slice. Compared with the previously proposed combination of ghost suppression with SENSE based on a direct image fit to echo data, our method reduces the problem complexity by N(2) /4. It was applied to reconstruct images of phantoms and human brain. RESULTS: The proposed method tolerates high differences of phase correction between slices, which may result, e.g., from anisotropic gradient delay. It suppresses artifacts better than standard SENSE even when the latter is repeated with the ghost correction targeting each of the slices and works significantly faster than the direct fit version of ghost-correcting SENSE. CONCLUSION: With the proposed modification SENSE allows a rapid separation of slices simultaneously acquired with EPI even when the phase correction needed for each slice is different. Magn Reson Med 76:873-879, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Towards highly accelerated Cartesian time-resolved 3D flow cardiovascular magnetic resonance in the clinical setting.

BACKGROUND: The clinical applicability of time-resolved 3D flow cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) remains compromised by the long scan times associated with phase-contrast imaging. The present work demonstrates the applicability of 8-fold acceleration of Cartesian time-resolved 3D flow CMR in 10 volunteers and in 9 patients with different congenital heart diseases (CHD). It is demonstrated that accelerated 3D flow CMR data acquisition and image reconstruction using k-t PCA (principal component analysis) can be implemented into clinical workflow and results are sufficiently accurate relative to conventional 2D flow CMR to permit for comprehensive flow quantification in CHD patients. METHODS: The fidelity of k-t PCA was first investigated on retrospectively undersampled data for different acceleration factors and compared to k-t SENSE and fully sampled reference data. Subsequently, k-t PCA with 8-fold nominal undersampling was applied on 10 healthy volunteers and 9 CHD patients on a clinical 1.5 T MR scanner. Quantitative flow validation was performed in vessels of interest on the 3D flow datasets and compared to 2D through-plane flow acquisitions. Particle trace analysis was used to qualitatively visualise flow patterns in patients. RESULTS: Accelerated time-resolved 3D flow data were successfully acquired in all subjects with 8-fold nominal scan acceleration. Nominal scan times excluding navigator efficiency were on the order of 6 min and 7 min in patients and volunteers. Mean differences in stroke volume in selected vessels of interest were 2.5 ± 8.4 ml and 1.63 ± 4.8 ml in volunteers and patients, respectively. Qualitative flow pattern analysis in the time-resolved 3D dataset revealed valuable insights into hemodynamics including circular and helical patterns as well as flow distributions and origin in the Fontan circulation. CONCLUSION: Highly accelerated time-resolved 3D flow using k-t PCA is readily applicable in clinical routine protocols of CHD patients. Nominal scan times of 6 min are well tolerated and allow for quantitative and qualitative flow assessment in all great vessels.

Small animal Look-Locker inversion recovery (SALLI) for simultaneous generation of cardiac T1 maps and cine and inversion recovery-prepared images at high heart rates: initial experience.

PURPOSE: To develop a single magnetic resonance (MR) imaging approach for comprehensive assessment of cardiac function and tissue properties in small animals with high heart rates. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All animal studies were approved by the local animal care committee. Small animal Look-Locker inversion recovery (SALLI) was implemented on a clinical 3.0-T MR unit equipped with a 70-mm solenoid coil. SALLI combines a segmented, electrocardiographically gated, inversion recovery-prepared Look-Locker-type pulse sequence with a multimodal reconstruction framework. Temporal undersampling and radial nonbalanced steady-state free precession enabled acceleration of data acquisition and reduction of motion artifacts, respectively. Nine agarose gel phantoms were used to investigate different sequence settings. For in vivo studies, 10 Sprague-Dawley rats were evaluated to establish normal T1 values before and after injection of gadopentetate dimeglumine. Seven rats with surgically induced acute myocardial infarction were examined to test the feasibility of detecting myocardial injury. In vitro T1 behavior was studied with linear regression analysis, and in vivo T1 differences between infarcted and remote areas were tested by using the Wilcoxon signed rank test. RESULTS: Phantom studies demonstrated systematic behavior of the T1 measurements, and T1 error could be reduced to 1.3% ± 7.4 by using a simple linear correction algorithm. The pre- and postcontrast T1 of myocardium and blood showed narrow normal ranges. In the area of infarction, SALLI demonstrated hypokinesia (on cine images), myocardial edema (on precontrast T1 maps), and myocardial necrosis (on postcontrast T1 maps and late gadolinium enhancement images). CONCLUSION: An MR imaging method enabling simultaneous generation of cardiac T1 maps and cine and inversion recovery-prepared images at high heart rates is presented. SALLI allows for simultaneous and time-efficient assessment of cardiac T1 behavior, function, and late gadolinium enhancement at high heart rates.

Nonrigid retrospective respiratory motion correction in whole-heart coronary MRA.

A nonrigid retrospective respiratory motion correction scheme is presented for whole-heart coronary imaging with interleaved acquisition of motion information. The quasi-periodic nature of breathing is exploited to populate a 3D nonrigid motion model from low-resolution 2D imaging slices acquired interleaved with a segmented 3D whole-heart coronary scan without imposing scan time penalty. Reconstruction and motion correction are based on inversion of a generalized encoding equation. Therein, a forward model describes the transformation from the motion free image to the motion distorted k-space data, which includes nonrigid spatial transformations. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated on 10 healthy volunteers using free-breathing coronary whole-heart scans. Although conventional respiratory-gated acquisitions with 5-mm gating window resulted in an average gating efficiency of 51% ± 11%, nonrigid motion correction allowed for gate-free acquisitions, and hence scan time reduction by a factor of two without significant penalty in image quality. Image scores and quantitative image quality measures for the left coronary arteries showed no significant differences between 5-mm gated and gate-free acquisitions with motion correction. For the right coronary artery, slightly reduced image quality in the motion corrected gate-free scan was observed as a result of the close vicinity of anatomical structures with different motion characteristics. Magn Reson Med, 2011. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Performance of simultaneous cardiac-respiratory self-gated three-dimensional MR imaging of the heart: initial experience.

This study was approved by the local institutional ethics committee, and informed consent was obtained from all volunteers and patients. The objective of the present study was to assess the performance of high-spatial-resolution three-dimensional prospective cardiac-respiratory self-gated (CRSG) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging for determining left ventricular (LV) volumes and mass, as well as right ventricular (RV) volumes, in comparison with standard electrocardiography (ECG)-triggered, two-dimensional multisection, multiple-breath-hold cine imaging. The self-gated method derives cardiac triggering and respiratory gating information prospectively on the basis of additional MR imaging signals acquired in every repetition time and, thereby, eliminates the need for ECG triggering and multiple-breath-hold procedures. Data were acquired in 15 healthy volunteers (mean age, 27.2 years +/- 7.2 [standard deviation]) and 11 patients (mean age, 60.7 years +/- 11.3). The bias between the self-gating and the reference imaging techniques was minimal for all LV and RV parameters (mean values: LV end-diastolic volume, 2.0 mL; LV end-systolic volume, 0.6 mL; RV end-diastolic volume, 2.2 mL; and RV end-systolic volume, 0.8 mL). Prospective CRSG is a valuable alternative to ECG-triggered, multisection, multiple-breath-hold cine imaging of the heart and holds considerable promise for simplifying functional imaging of the heart, particularly in patients who are unable to hold their breath for a long period and patients who show ECG signal disturbances.

Prospective self-gating for simultaneous compensation of cardiac and respiratory motion.

Segmented cardiac acquisitions generally require the use of an electrocardiogram (ECG) in combination with a breathhold or a respiratory navigator placed on the diaphragm. These techniques necessitate patient cooperation and increase the complexity of cardiac imaging. The ECG signal may be distorted inside the magnet by interferences from radiofrequency and gradient action. Breathhold acquisition limits the total scan time, while navigators on the diaphragm might not fully reflect respiratory-induced motion of the heart. To overcome some of these problems, several self-gating (SG) or "wireless" techniques have recently been presented. All of these approaches, however, are based on either cardiac triggering or respiratory gating, or the data are processed retrospectively, reducing the efficiency of data acquisition. In this work a prospective SG approach for free-breathing imaging is presented that requires neither ECG gating nor respiratory navigation. The motion data used for cardiac triggering and respiratory gating are extracted from the repeatedly acquired k-space center. Based on computer simulations and in vivo data of the heart, it is shown that cardiac as well as respiratory motion can be accurately extracted in real time. Using the method proposed, the scan efficiency could be significantly increased while preserving image quality relative to retrospective SG approaches.

Array compression for MRI with large coil arrays.

Arrays with large numbers of independent coil elements are becoming increasingly available as they provide increased signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) and improved parallel imaging performance. Processing of data from a large set of independent receive channels is, however, associated with an increased memory and computational load in reconstruction. This work addresses this problem by introducing coil array compression. The method allows one to reduce the number of datasets from independent channels by combining all or partial sets in the time domain prior to image reconstruction. It is demonstrated that array compression can be very effective depending on the size of the region of interest (ROI). Based on 2D in vivo data obtained with a 32-element phased-array coil in the heart, it is shown that the number of channels can be compressed to as few as four with only 0.3% SNR loss in an ROI encompassing the heart. With twofold parallel imaging, only a 2% loss in SNR occurred using the same compression factor.

Coil setup optimization for 2D-SENSE whole-heart coronary imaging.

Accelerated "whole-heart" coronary imaging with sensitivity encoding applied in both phase encoding directions (2D-SENSE) was investigated. In order to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), coil configuration optimization was performed. To this end, 10 practical coil configurations each consisting of six standard coil elements were investigated and the local SNR was assessed by means of phantom experiments. Based on the experimental data, a symmetric configuration was found to yield the highest SNR. In a volunteer study, 2D-SENSE coronary images were obtained with total reduction factors of 3 and 4. Excellent depiction of the right and left coronary systems was possible in all cases.