Extension of the UNFOLD method to include free breathing

Unaliasing by Fourier-encoding the overlaps using the temporal dimension (UNFOLD) is a method to reduce the data acquisition burden in dynamic MRI. The method works by forcing aliased signals to behave in specific ways through time, so that these unwanted signals can be detected and removed. Unexpected events in time, such as displacements caused by breathing, have the potential to disturb the temporal strategy and may affect UNFOLD's ability to suppress aliasing artifacts. This work presents an extension of the UNFOLD method to accommodate temporal encoding disruptions. While the main type of disruption considered here comes from respiratory motion, other types of disruption can be envisioned, such as departures from the usual UNFOLD k-space sampling scheme. This extended version of UNFOLD was incorporated into UNFOLD-sensitivity encoding (UNFOLD-SENSE), and should also be applicable to closely related methods such as temporal SENSE (TSENSE), k-t Broaduse Linear Acquisition Speed up Technique (k-t BLAST), and k-t SENSE. Five patients were imaged with a modified version of a myocardial-perfusion sequence, and UNFOLD was used either alone or in conjunction with SENSE to obtain an acceleration of 2.0 (in three patients) or 3.0 (in two patients). In both cases this extended version of UNFOLD was able to suppress artifacts caused by the presence of breathing motion.