Motion compensated generalized reconstruction for free-breathing dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Biophysics
• Image Processing

Background:

• Physiological motion during dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) causes artifacts and misregistration, hindering analysis.
• Breath-holding is insufficient for long DCE-MRI acquisitions, necessitating motion compensation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel reconstruction technique for DCE-MRI that corrects for respiratory motion.
• To improve the accuracy of time-intensity curve analysis by reducing motion-induced errors.

Main Methods:

• A multipurpose reconstruction technique, dynamic contrast-enhanced generalized reconstruction by inversion of coupled systems (DCGRICS), was developed.
• DCGRICS incorporates motion and contrast-change modeling using physiological signals and x-f space properties.
• It solves a coupled system of linear equations to estimate parameters for nonrigid motion and B-spline-based contrast changes.

Main Results:

• The technique demonstrated effective motion artifact correction and registration in myocardial perfusion imaging.
• Evaluated on simulated and clinical datasets, it successfully removed motion-induced errors from time-intensity curves.
• Improved accuracy in curve analysis and postprocessing was observed.

Conclusions:

• The presented DCGRICS method effectively compensates for respiratory motion in DCE-MRI.
• This technique alleviates postprocessing challenges and enhances the reliability of DCE-MRI analysis.
• It offers new avenues for advanced quantitative analysis in DCE-MRI studies.