Highly efficient nonrigid motion‐corrected 3D whole‐heart coronary vessel wall imaging

• Published in: Magnetic resonance in medicine Vol. 77; no. 5; pp. 1894 - 1908
• Main Authors: Cruz, Gastão, Atkinson, David, Henningsson, Markus, Botnar, Rene M., Prieto, Claudia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.05.2017; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: Algorithms; Arteries; Breathing; Catheters; Coronary artery; coronary MRA; coronary vessel wall; Coronary vessels; Coronary Vessels - diagnostic imaging; Endothelium, Vascular - diagnostic imaging; Female; Healthy Volunteers; Heart; Heart - diagnostic imaging; Humans; Image acquisition; image navigators; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Imaging Methodology—Full Papers; Imaging, Three-Dimensional - methods; Magnetic Resonance Angiography - methods; Magnetic resonance imaging; Male; Motion; Navigators; nonrigid motion; Respiration; Respiratory-Gated Imaging Techniques - methods; Sharpness; Stents; Subtraction; Three dimensional flow; Three dimensional motion; Veins & arteries; Wall thickness; coronary vessel wall; image navigators; coronary MRA; nonrigid motion
• ISSN: 0740-3194; 1522-2594
• DOI: 10.1002/mrm.26274

Purpose To develop a respiratory motion correction framework to accelerate free‐breathing three‐dimensional (3D) whole‐heart coronary lumen and coronary vessel wall MRI. Methods We developed a 3D flow‐independent approach for vessel wall imaging based on the subtraction of data with and without T2‐preparation prepulses acquired interleaved with image navigators. The proposed method corrects both datasets to the same respiratory position using beat‐to‐beat translation and bin‐to‐bin nonrigid corrections, producing coregistered, motion‐corrected coronary lumen and coronary vessel wall images. The proposed method was studied in 10 healthy subjects and was compared with beat‐to‐beat translational correction (TC) and no motion correction for the left and right coronary arteries. Additionally, the coronary lumen images were compared with a 6‐mm diaphragmatic navigator gated and tracked scan. Results No significant differences (P > 0.01) were found between the proposed method and the gated and tracked scan for coronary lumen, despite an average improvement in scan efficiency to 96% from 59%. Significant differences (P < 0.01) were found in right coronary artery vessel wall thickness, right coronary artery vessel wall sharpness, and vessel wall visual score between the proposed method and TC. Conclusion The feasibility of a highly efficient motion correction framework for simultaneous whole‐heart coronary lumen and vessel wall has been demonstrated. Magn Reson Med 77:1894–1908, 2017. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine