Retrospective correction of involuntary microscopic head movement using highly accelerated fat image navigators (3D...

The goal of the present study was to use a three-dimensional (3D) gradient echo volume in combination with a fat-selective excitation as a 3D motion navigator (3D FatNav) for retrospective correction of microscopic head motion during high-resolution 3D structural scans of extended duration. The fat excitation leads to a 3D image that is itself sparse, allowing high parallel imaging acceleration factors--with the additional advantage of a minimal disturbance of the water signal used for the host sequence.

A 3D FatNav was inserted into two structural protocols: an inversion-prepared gradient echo at 0.33 × 0.33 × 1.00 mm resolution and a turbo spin echo at 600 μm isotropic resolution.

Motion estimation was possible with high precision, allowing retrospective motion correction to yield clear improvements in image quality, especially in the conspicuity of very small blood vessels.

The highly accelerated 3D FatNav allowed motion correction with noticeable improvements in image quality, even for head motion which was small compared with the voxel dimensions of the host sequence.