Respiratory amplitude guided 4-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging

Yanle Hu, Shelton D. Caruthers, Daniel A. Low, Parag J. Parikh, Sasa Mutic

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

79 Scopus citations

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility of prospectively guiding 4-dimensional (4D) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) image acquisition using triggers at preselected respiratory amplitudes to achieve T2 weighting for abdominal motion tracking. Methods and Materials: A respiratory amplitude-based triggering system was developed and integrated into a commercial turbo spin echo MRI sequence. Initial feasibility tests were performed on healthy human study participants. Four respiratory states, the middle and the end of inhalation and exhalation, were used to trigger 4D MRI image acquisition of the liver. To achieve T2 weighting, the echo time and repetition time were set to 75 milliseconds and 4108 milliseconds, respectively. Single-shot acquisition, together with parallel imaging and partial k-space imaging techniques, was used to improve image acquisition efficiency. 4D MRI image sets composed of axial or sagittal slices were acquired. Results: Respiratory data measured and logged by the MRI scanner showed that the triggers occurred at the appropriate respiratory levels. Liver motion could be easily observed on both 4D MRI image datasets by sensing either the change of liver in size and shape (axial) or diaphragm motion (sagittal). Both 4D MRI image datasets were T2-weighted as expected. Conclusions: This study demonstrated the feasibility of achieving T 2-weighted 4D MRI images using amplitude-based respiratory triggers. With the aid of the respiratory amplitude-based triggering system, the proposed method is compatible with most MRI sequences and therefore has the potential to improve tumor-tissue contrast in abdominal tumor motion imaging.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)198-204
Number of pages7
JournalInternational Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics
Volume86
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - May 1 2013

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