Robust abdominal imaging with incomplete breath-holds.

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Radiology
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Breath-holding is crucial for minimizing motion artifacts in abdominal imaging.
• Patient breath-holding capacity can be insufficient for lengthy, high-resolution scans, leading to motion artifacts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel strategy for reconstructing abdominal images from incomplete breath-holds.
• To minimize motion artifacts in abdominal imaging irrespective of patient breath-holding duration.

Main Methods:

• A specialized sampling pattern was designed for image reconstruction using compressed sensing and parallel imaging.
• Navigator-based respiration detection enabled scan termination and reconstruction from consistent data.
• Spatial resolution was dynamically adjusted to balance signal-to-noise ratio and undersampling artifacts.

Main Results:

• The optimized sampling pattern was validated in phantom experiments.
• The strategy was successfully applied to abdominal gradient-echo imaging in volunteers, including water-fat separation.
• Images demonstrated minimized motion artifacts and improved spatial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio.

Conclusions:

• The proposed strategy effectively minimizes motion artifacts in abdominal imaging.
• Image quality, including spatial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio, improves with achieved breath-hold duration.
• This method enhances diagnostic accuracy by providing motion-artifact-free images regardless of patient cooperation.