Non-rigid motion-corrected free-breathing 3D myocardial Dixon LGE imaging in a clinical setting

To investigate the efficacy of an in-line non-rigid motion-compensated reconstruction (NRC) in an image-navigated high-resolution three-dimensional late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) sequence with Dixon water-fat separation, in a clinical setting.

Forty-seven consecutive patients were enrolled prospectively and examined with 1.5 T MRI. NRC reconstructions were compared to translational motion-compensated reconstructions (TC) of the same datasets in overall and different sub-category image quality scores, diagnostic confidence, contrast ratios, LGE pattern, and semiautomatic LGE quantification.

NRC outperformed TC in all image quality scores (p < 0.001 to 0.016; e.g., overall image quality 5/5 points vs. 4/5). Overall image quality was downgraded in only 23% of NRC datasets vs. 53% of TC datasets due to residual respiratory motion. In both reconstructions, LGE was rated as ischemic in 11 patients and non-ischemic in 10 patients, while it was absent in 26 patients. NRC delivered significantly higher LGE-to-myocardium and blood-to-myocardium contrast ratios (median 6.33 vs. 5.96, p < 0.001 and 4.88 vs. 4.66, p < 0.001, respectively). Automatically detected LGE mass was significantly lower in the NRC reconstruction (p < 0.001). Diagnostic confidence was identical in all cases, with high confidence in 89% and probable in 11% datasets for both reconstructions. No case was rated as inconclusive.

The in-line implementation of a non-rigid motion-compensated reconstruction framework improved image quality in image-navigated free-breathing, isotropic high-resolution 3D LGE imaging with undersampled spiral-like Cartesian sampling and Dixon water-fat separation compared to translational motion correction of the same datasets. The sharper depictions of LGE may lead to more accurate measures of LGE mass.

• 3D LGE imaging provides high-resolution detection of myocardial scarring. • Non-rigid motion correction provides better image quality in cardiac MRI. • Non-rigid motion correction may lead to more accurate measures of LGE mass.