Motion and temporal B0-shift corrections for QSM and R 2 * mapping using dual-echo spiral navigators and conjugate-phase reconstruction.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To develop an efficient navigator-based motion and temporal B0-shift correction technique for 3D multi-echo gradient-echo (ME-GRE) MRI for quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) and R 2 * $$ {\mathrm{R}}_2^{\ast } $$ mapping. THEORY AND METHODS: A dual-echo 3D stack-of-spiral navigator was designed to interleave with the Cartesian multi-echo gradient-echo acquisitions, allowing the acquisition of both low-echo and high-echo time signals. We additionally designed a novel conjugate phase-based reconstruction method for the joint correction of motion and temporal B0 shifts. We performed numerical simulation, phantom scans, and in vivo human scans to assess the performance of the methods. RESULTS: Numerical simulation and human brain scans demonstrated that the proposed technique successfully corrected artifacts induced by both head motions and temporal B0 changes. Efficient B0-change correction with conjugate-phase reconstruction can be performed on fewer than 10 clustered k-space segments. In vivo scans showed that combining temporal B0 correction with motion correction further reduced artifacts and improved image quality in both R 2 * $$ {\mathrm{R}}_2^{\ast } $$ and QSM images. CONCLUSION: Our proposed approach of using 3D spiral navigators and a novel conjugate-phase reconstruction method can improve susceptibility-related measurements using MR.