Highly undersampled contrast-enhanced MRA with iterative reconstruction: Integration in a clinical setting

Area of Science:

• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
• Medical Imaging Techniques

Background:

• Conventional contrast-enhanced MRA (CEMRA) can be time-consuming and may lack sufficient spatial resolution.
• Sparse MRI techniques offer potential for accelerated imaging acquisition.

Purpose of the Study:

• To integrate, optimize, and evaluate a 3D contrast-enhanced sparse MRA technique with iterative reconstruction on a clinical MRI system.
• To assess the feasibility of whole-head sparse CEMRA.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a highly undersampled Cartesian spiral phyllotaxis sampling pattern.
• Employed iterative SENSE reconstruction directly on the MR system.
• Optimized undersampling, regularization, and iteration count using phantom and patient data.

Main Results:

• Achieved 0.7 mm isotropic resolution with 30-fold undersampling in 10 seconds acquisition time.
• Reconstructed high-quality 3D volumes within six minutes after optimization.
• Demonstrated high-quality, whole-head first-pass CEMRA in 10 patients, covering arterial and venous phases.

Conclusions:

• Sparse CEMRA is technically feasible for high-quality, whole-head imaging in a clinical setting.
• This technique shows potential as a faster, higher-resolution alternative to conventional CEMRA.
• Further development could lead to clinical adoption of sparse MRI techniques.