Comparison of cardiac diffusion MRI using multiple prospective respiratory motion correction techniques.

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Cardiovascular Imaging
• Diffusion Tensor Imaging

Background:

• Respiratory motion significantly impacts cardiovascular diffusion tensor imaging (cDTI) quality.
• Accurate motion correction is crucial for reliable cDTI analysis in cardiac applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a novel prospective motion correction system with slice tracking (MNav-CoS) for free-breathing cDTI.
• To compare MNav-CoS against three other respiratory motion correction techniques.

Main Methods:

• Ten healthy volunteers underwent cDTI using an M2SE sequence.
• MNav-CoS was compared with breath-holds (BH), respiratory gating (Gate), and single navigator slice tracking (Nav).
• Diffusion tensor metrics (MD, FA, HA) were calculated, and cardiac through-plane motion was estimated.

Main Results:

• MNav-CoS achieved comparable diffusion tensor metrics (MD, FA, HA) to other techniques.
• Free-breathing acquisitions with slice tracking were approximately three times shorter than BH.
• Average cardiac through-plane motion during free breathing was 6.2±1.7 mm.

Conclusions:

• MNav-CoS demonstrates comparable performance to existing respiratory motion correction methods.
• Prospective slice tracking offers time-saving advantages and compensates for through-plane motion.
• These techniques improve the clinical utility of cDTI by enabling longer acquisitions.