Self-gated tissue phase mapping using golden angle radial sparse SENSE.

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• Medical Imaging Reconstruction

Background:

• Golden Angle Radial (GA) k-space acquisition is a common technique in cardiac MRI.
• Image-based self-gating (SG) offers an alternative to prospective triggering for cardiac motion compensation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the combination of Golden Angle Radial Sparse SENSE reconstruction with image-based SG for high-quality through-plane motion (TPM) data acquisition.
• To compare this novel method with conventional prospectively triggered acquisitions.

Main Methods:

• A self-gated radial GA TPM sequence (TPMSG) was developed and tested in 10 healthy volunteers.
• TPMSG was compared against a prospectively triggered radial TPM acquisition with respiratory navigation (TPMref).
• Image quality and velocity measurements were assessed across various CS reconstruction regularization strengths (λ).

Main Results:

• Retrospective self-gating was successful in all participants.
• TPMSG demonstrated superior contrast compared to TPMref, enabling full-thickness blood saturation bands.
• Quantitative velocity analysis showed high similarity between TPMSG and TPMref (correlation 0.81-0.97).
• Optimal regularization (λ=0.2) in TPMSG yielded comparable image sharpness and velocity peaks to TPMref.

Conclusions:

• The integration of Golden Angle Radial Sparse SENSE with image-based SG provides high-quality myocardial velocity measurements.
• This approach achieves superior black-blood contrast and complete cardiac cycle coverage.
• It offers a promising alternative to conventional triggering methods in cardiac MRI.