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Free breathing 1H MRI of the human lung with an improved radial turbo spin-echo

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Abstract

Objective

To optimize a radial turbo spin-echo sequence for motion-robust morphological lung magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in free respiration.

Materials and methods

A versatile multi-shot radial turbo spin-echo (rTSE) sequence is presented, using a modified golden ratio-based reordering designed to prevent coherent streaking due to data inconsistencies from physiological motion and the decaying signal. The point spread function for a moving object was simulated using a model for joint respiratory and cardiac motion with a concomitant T2 signal decay and with rTSE acquisition using four different reordering techniques. The reordering strategies were compared in vivo using healthy volunteers and the sequence was tested for feasibility in two patients with lung cancer and pneumonia.

Results

Simulations and in vivo measurements showed very weak artifacts, aside from motion blur, using the proposed reordering. Due to the opportunity for longer scan times in free respiration, a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was achieved, facilitating identification of the disease as compared to standard half-Fourier-acquisition single-shot turbo spin-echo (HASTE) scans. Additionally, post-processing allowed modifying the T2 contrast retrospectively, further improving the diagnostic fidelity.

Conclusion

The proposed radial TSE sequence allowed for high-resolution imaging with limited obscuring artifacts. The radial k-space traversal allowed for versatile post-processing that may help to improve the diagnosis of subtle diseases.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG), Grant numbers DFG JA 827/8-1 and DFG JA 827/8-2.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standard

All human studies were approved by the ethics committee at the medical facility of Heidelberg University and written informed consent was obtained from all subjects. All studies have, therefore, been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and amendments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center for Magnetic Resonance Bavaria, Würzburg, Germany

    Michael Völker, Felix Arno Breuer, Martin Blaimer & Peter Michael Jakob

  2. Max-Planck-Institute for Biological Cybernetics, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Philipp Ehses

  3. Department of Experimental Physics 5, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

    Stefan Weick & Peter Michael Jakob

  4. Department of Radiation Oncology, Universitätsklinikum Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

    Stefan Weick

  5. German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany

    Christian Hintze & Jürgen Biederer

  6. Radiologie Darmstadt, Kreisklinik Gross Gerau, Gross Gerau, Germany

    Jürgen Biederer

  7. Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

    Christian Hintze & Jürgen Biederer

  8. Translational Lung Research Center (TLRC), Member of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Heidelberg, Germany

    Jürgen Biederer

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  1. Michael Völker
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Correspondence to Michael Völker.

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Völker, M., Ehses, P., Weick, S. et al. Free breathing 1H MRI of the human lung with an improved radial turbo spin-echo. Magn Reson Mater Phy 28, 227–238 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-014-0468-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-014-0468-x

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