Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 27, 2026
Multi-modal Pulmonary Imaging: Using Complementary Information from CT and Hyperpolarized 129Xe MRI to Evaluate Lung Structure-Function
Published on: April 12, 2024
Improvement of multislice oxygen-enhanced MRI of the lung by fully automatic non-rigid image registration
Francesco Molinari1, Grzegorz Bauman, Guglielmo Paolantonio
1Department of Bioimaging and Radiological Sciences, Catholic University of Rome, Italy. francescomolinari.dr@gmail.com
Purpose:
In oxygen-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of the lung (O2-MRI), motion artifacts related to breathing hamper the quality of the parametric O2-maps. In this study, fully automatic non-rigid image registration was assessed as a post-processing method to improve the quality of O2-MRI.
Materials And Methods:
Twenty healthy volunteers were investigated on a 1.5 T MR system. O2-MRI was obtained in four coronal sections using an IR-HASTE sequence with TE/TI of 12/1200 ms. Each section was repeatedly imaged during oxygen and room-air ventilation. Spatial differences among the images were corrected by fully automatic non-rigid registration. Signal variability, relative enhancement ratio between oxygen and room air images, and spatial heterogeneity of lung enhancement were assessed before and after image registration.
Results:
Motion artifacts were corrected in 5-10s. Non-rigid registration reduced signal variability of the source images and heterogeneity of the O2-maps by 1.1 ± 0.2% and 11.2 ± 2.9%, respectively (p<0.0001). Registration did not influence O2 relative enhancement ratio (p=0.06).
Conclusion:
Fully automatic non-rigid image registration improves the quality of multislice oxygen-enhanced MRI of the lung.
