Simultaneous orthogonal plane cine imaging with balanced steady-state free-precession contrast using k-t GRAPPA

The goal of this study is to present a framework that allows cine images in orthogonal planes to be reconstructed simultaneously using slice-interleaved acquisitions and k-t GRAPPA. Slice-interleaved acquisitions can be interpreted as an undersampled k-t space in which data are desired at skipped frames. Local spatiotemporal correlations can be exploited to interpolate the skipped data to reconstruct images in orthogonal slice groups simultaneously. An in vivo experiment was performed in which interleaved sagittal and coronal balanced steady-state free-precession data were acquired in the abdomens of volunteers breathing normally. k-t GRAPPA weights were calculated from separate calibration scans and applied to the slice-interleaved data. The images from the interpolated frames have a similar contrast to the acquired frames, and the use of k-t GRAPPA improved the anatomical alignment between the orthogonal images in the presence of motion. The k-t GRAPPA reconstruction of slice-interleaved data is a promising method for obtaining cine images of orthogonal slices simultaneously with arbitrary contrast.