DC‐gated high resolution three‐dimensional lung imaging during free‐breathing |
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| Authors: | Stefan Weick Dipl. Ing Felix A. Breuer PhD Philipp Ehses Dipl. Phys Michael Völker Dipl. Phys Christian Hintze MD Jürgen Biederer MD Peter M. Jakob PhD |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Experimental Physics 5, University of Wuerzburg, Germany;2. Department of Diagnostic Radiology, University Hospital Schleswig‐Holstein, Campus Kiel, Germany;3. Research Center Magnetic‐Resonance‐Bavaria (MRB), Wuerzburg, Germany;4. Department of Radiology, German Cancer Research Centre, Heidelberg, Germany |
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| Abstract: | Purpose: To use the acquisition of the k‐space center signal (DC signal) implemented into a Cartesian three‐dimensional (3D) FLASH sequence for retrospective respiratory self‐gating and, thus, for the examination of the whole human lung in high spatial resolution during free breathing. Materials and Methods: Volunteer as well as patient measurements were performed under free breathing conditions. The DC signal is acquired after the actual image data acquisition within each excitation of a 3D FLASH sequence. The DC signal is then used to track respiratory motion for retrospective respiratory gating. Results: It is shown that the acquisition of the DC signal after the imaging module can be used in a 3D FLASH sequence to extract respiratory motion information for retrospective respiratory self‐gating and allows for shorter echo times (TE) and therefore increased lung parenchyma SNR. Conclusion: The acquisition of the DC signal after image signal acquisition allows successful retrospective gating, enabling the reconstruction of high resolution images of the whole human lung under free breathing conditions. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2013;37:727–732. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. |
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| Keywords: | morphological lung imaging retrospective self‐gating |
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