Improved temporal resolution in cardiac imaging using through‐time spiral GRAPPA

Previous work has shown that the use of radial GRAPPA for the reconstruction of undersampled real‐time free‐breathing cardiac data allows for frame rates of up to 30 images/s. It is well known that the spiral trajectory offers a higher scan efficiency compared to radial trajectories. For this reason, we have developed a novel through‐time spiral GRAPPA method and demonstrate its application to real‐time cardiac imaging. By moving from the radial trajectory to the spiral trajectory, the temporal resolution can be further improved at lower acceleration factors compared to radial GRAPPA. In addition, the image quality is improved compared to those generated using the radial trajectory due to the lower acceleration factor. Here, we show that 2D frame rates of up to 56 images/s can be achieved using this parallel imaging method with the spiral trajectory. Magn Reson Med, 2011. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

[1]  Xiaoping Hu,et al.  Auto‐calibrated parallel spiral imaging , 2006, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[2]  Daniel K Sodickson,et al.  3Parallel magnetic resonance imaging with adaptive radius in k‐space (PARS): Constrained image reconstruction using k‐space locality in radiofrequency coil encoded data , 2005, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[3]  Robin M Heidemann,et al.  Direct parallel image reconstructions for spiral trajectories using GRAPPA , 2006, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[4]  P. Boesiger,et al.  Advances in sensitivity encoding with arbitrary k‐space trajectories , 2001, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[5]  Martin Blaimer,et al.  General formulation for quantitative G‐factor calculation in GRAPPA reconstructions , 2009, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[6]  Jeffrey A Fessler,et al.  On NUFFT-based gridding for non-Cartesian MRI. , 2007, Journal of magnetic resonance.

[7]  J A Frank,et al.  Simple correction method for k-space trajectory deviations in MRI. , 1998, Journal of magnetic resonance.

[8]  Peter M. Jakob,et al.  Direct parallel imaging reconstruction of radially sampled data using GRAPPA with relative shifts , 2003 .

[9]  Martin Blaimer,et al.  Reconstruction of undersampled non‐Cartesian data sets using pseudo‐Cartesian GRAPPA in conjunction with GROG , 2008, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[10]  Nicole Seiberlich,et al.  Improved radial GRAPPA calibration for real‐time free‐breathing cardiac imaging , 2011, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[11]  Robin M Heidemann,et al.  Generalized autocalibrating partially parallel acquisitions (GRAPPA) , 2002, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[12]  Dwight G Nishimura,et al.  Time‐optimal multidimensional gradient waveform design for rapid imaging , 2004, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[13]  Peter M. Jakob,et al.  Rapid evaluation of cardiac function using undersampled radial trueFISP with GRAPPA , 2004 .

[14]  Bob S. Hu,et al.  Fast Spiral Coronary Artery Imaging , 1992, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[15]  Dwight G Nishimura,et al.  Spiral balanced steady‐state free precession cardiac imaging , 2005, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[16]  Pascal Spincemaille,et al.  A radial self‐calibrated (RASCAL) generalized autocalibrating partially parallel acquisition (GRAPPA) method using weight interpolation , 2011, NMR in biomedicine.