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Updated: Apr 6, 2026
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3D Cine Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Respiratory Motion in Mechanically Ventilated Mice and Rats
Published on: September 19, 2025
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Multistage self-gated lung imaging in small rodents.
Marta Tibiletti1, Åsmund Kjørstad2,3, Andrea Bianchi4
1Core Facility Small Animal MRI, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany.
Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
|July 21, 2015
Summary
This study used self-gating signals in ultrashort echo time (UTE) imaging to reconstruct multiple respiratory stages in rats. The method improved image sharpness and revealed lung volume changes during respiration.
Area of Science:
- Medical Imaging
- Respiratory Physiology
- Biomedical Engineering
Background:
- Ultrashort echo time (UTE) imaging offers rapid data acquisition.
- Respiratory motion artifacts degrade image quality in free-breathing animal studies.
- Self-gating techniques can potentially mitigate motion artifacts.
Purpose of the Study:
- To exploit the self-gating signal in 2D UTE acquisitions of freely breathing rats.
- To reconstruct multiple respiratory stages for improved analysis.
- To investigate the impact of respiratory gating on image quality metrics.
Main Methods:
- A 2D golden angle UTE protocol was applied to twelve rats.
- The self-gating signal was extracted from k-space and sorted into five respiration bins.
- Lung volume, sharpness, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and normalized signal intensity (NSI) were analyzed.
Main Results:
- Lung volume decreased from inspiration to expiration.
- Image sharpness was higher in expiration compared to ungated images.
- SNR and NSI showed variations reflecting lung tissue density changes during respiration.
Conclusions:
- The presented respiratory gating method enables reconstruction of different respiratory positions.
- Expiration images demonstrated improved sharpness over ungated images.
- Changes in SNR and NSI correlate with lung tissue density variations during respiration.
