Asymmetric gradient echoes were successfully implemented for highly undersampled radial trajectories. The resulting temporal gain offers full velocity compensation for real-time phase-contrast flow MRI which minimizes false-positive contributions from complex flow and further enhances the temporal resolution compared with acquisitions with symmetric echoes.
Abstract:Purpose: To develop a method for T1 mapping at high spatial resolution and for multiple slices. Methods:The proposed method emerges as a single-shot inversion-recovery experiment which covers the entire spinlattice relaxation process by serial acquisitions of highly undersampled radial FLASH images, either in single-slice or multi-slice mode. Serial image reconstructions are performed in time-reversed order and first involve regularized nonlinear inversion (NLINV) to estimate optimum coil sensitivity profiles. Subsequently, the coil profiles are fixed for the calculation of differently T1-weighted frames and the resulting linear inverse problem is solved by a conjugate gradient (CG) technique. T1 values are obtained by pixelwise fitting with a Deichmann correction modified for multi-slice applications.Results: T1 accuracy was validated for a reference phantom. For human brain, T1 maps were obtained at 0.5 mm resolution for single-slice acquisitions and at 0.75 mm resolution for up to 5 simultaneous slices (5 mm thickness). Corresponding T1 maps of the liver were acquired at 1 mm and 1.5 mm resolution, respectively. All T1 values were in agreement with literature data. Conclusion:Inversion-recovery sequences with highly undersampled radial FLASH images and NLINV/CG reconstruction allow for fast, robust and accurate T1 mapping at high spatial resolution and for multiple slices.
Abstract:Purpose: To evaluate the temporal accuracy of a self-consistent nonlinear inverse reconstruction method (NLINV) for real-time MRI using highly undersampled radial gradient-echo sequences and to present an open source framework for the motion assessment of real-time MRI methods.Methods: Serial image reconstructions by NLINV combine a joint estimation of individual frames and corresponding coil sensitivities with temporal regularization to a preceding frame. The temporal fidelity of the method was determined with a phantom consisting of water-filled tubes rotating at defined angular velocity. The conditions tested correspond to realtime cardiac MRI using SSFP contrast at 1.5 T (40 ms resolution) and T1 contrast at 3.0 T (33 ms and 18 ms resolution). In addition, the performance of a post-processing temporal median filter was evaluated.Results: NLINV reconstructions without temporal filtering yield accurate estimations as long as the speed of a small moving object corresponds to a spatial displacement during the acquisition of a single frame which is smaller than the object itself. Faster movements may lead to geometric distortions. For small objects moving at high velocity, a median filter may severely compromise the spatiotemporal accuracy.Conclusion: NLINV reconstructions offer excellent temporal fidelity as long as the image acquisition time is short enough to adequately sample ("freeze") the object movement. Temporal filtering should be applied with caution. The motion framework emerges as a valuable tool for the evaluation of real-time MRI methods.
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