Low-latency temporal filter design for real-time MRI using UNFOLD

To improve real-time control of interventional procedures such as guidance of catheters, monitoring of ablation therapy, or control of dosage during drug delivery, the image acquisition and reconstruction must be high speed and have low latency (small time delay) in processing. A number of different methods have been demonstrated which increase the speed of MR acquisition by decreasing the number of sequential phase-encodes. A design and implementation of the UNFOLD method which achieves the desired low latency with a recursive temporal filter is presented. The recursive filter design is characterized for this application and compared with more commonly used moving average filters. Experimental results demonstrate low-latency UNFOLD for two applications: 1) high-speed, real-time imaging of the heart to be used in conjunction with cardiac interventional procedures; and 2) the injection of drugs into muscle tissue with contrast enhancement, i.e., monitoring needle insertion and injection of a drug with contrast enhancement properties. Proof-of-concept was demonstrated by injecting a contrast agent. In both applications the UNFOLD technique was used to double the frame rate.