Comparison of prospective and retrospective motion correction in 3D-encoded neuroanatomical MRI.

PURPOSE: To compare prospective motion correction (PMC) and retrospective motion correction (RMC) in Cartesian 3D-encoded MPRAGE scans and to investigate the effects of correction frequency and parallel imaging on the performance of RMC. METHODS: Head motion was estimated using a markerless tracking system and sent to a modified MPRAGE sequence, which can continuously update the imaging FOV to perform PMC. The prospective correction was applied either before each echo train (before-ET) or at every sixth readout within the ET (within-ET). RMC was applied during image reconstruction by adjusting k-space trajectories according to the measured motion. The motion correction frequency was retrospectively increased with RMC or decreased with reverse RMC. Phantom and in vivo experiments were used to compare PMC and RMC, as well as to compare within-ET and before-ET correction frequency during continuous motion. The correction quality was quantitatively evaluated using the structural similarity index measure with a reference image without motion correction and without intentional motion. RESULTS: PMC resulted in superior image quality compared to RMC both visually and quantitatively. Increasing the correction frequency from before-ET to within-ET reduced the motion artifacts in RMC. A hybrid PMC and RMC correction, that is, retrospectively increasing the correction frequency of before-ET PMC to within-ET, also reduced motion artifacts. Inferior performance of RMC compared to PMC was shown with GRAPPA calibration data without intentional motion and without any GRAPPA acceleration. CONCLUSION: Reductions in local Nyquist violations with PMC resulted in superior image quality compared to RMC. Increasing the motion correction frequency to within-ET reduced the motion artifacts in both RMC and PMC.

Safety and imaging performance of two-channel RF shimming for fetal MRI at 3T.

PURPOSE: This study investigates whether two-channel radiofrequency (RF) shimming can improve imaging without increasing specific absorption rate (SAR) for fetal MRI at 3T. METHODS: Transmit field ( B1+ ) average and variation in the fetus was simulated in seven numerical pregnant body models. Safety was quantified by maternal and fetal peak local SAR and fetal average SAR. The shim parameter space was divided into improved B1+ (magnitude and homogeneity) and improved SAR regions, and an overlap where RF shimming improved both classes of metrics compared with birdcage mode was assessed. Additionally, the effect of fetal position, tissue detail, and dielectric properties on transmit field and SAR was studied. RESULTS: A region of subject-specific RF shim parameter space improving both B1+ and SAR metrics was found for five of the seven models. Optimizing only B1+ metrics improved B1+ efficiency across models by 15% on average and 28% for the best-case model. B1+ variation improved by 26% on average and 49% for the best case. However, for these shim settings, fetal SAR increased by up to 106%. The overlap region, where both B1+ and SAR metrics improve, showed an average B1+ efficiency improvement of 6% on average across models and 19% for the best-case model. B1+ variation improved by 13% on average and 40% for the best case. RFS could also decrease maternal/fetal SAR by up to 49%/58%. CONCLUSION: RF shimming can improve imaging compared with birdcage mode without increasing fetal and maternal SAR when a patient-specific SAR model is incorporated into the shimming procedure.

Correction of magnetic field inhomogeneity effects for fast quantitative susceptibility mapping.

PURPOSE: Quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) provides information about tissue composition and organization. However, current acquisition methods can be quite time consuming, limiting the use of QSM in studies and in monitoring dynamic events. In this work, time efficient spiral acquisitions are combined with a model-based image reconstruction approach. Magnetic field inhomogeneity artifacts are corrected to obtain full brain susceptibility maps. METHODS: Magnetic field maps, capturing the magnetic field inhomogeneity distribution due to non-tissue sources (background field), were estimated from a calibration scan. Tissue phase information present in the background field maps was identified using variable spherical mean value filtering and removed from the estimated field maps. The resulting background field maps were then used in the image reconstruction to correct the magnetic field inhomogeneity artifacts. Images were acquired on a 3 T system with a 3D spiral-in acquisition based on a rotated stack of spirals. For comparison, standard gradient echo images were also acquired. Susceptibility maps were obtained for both acquisitions using a dipole inversion algorithm based on a compressed sensing compensated formulation with wavelet and total variation penalties. RESULTS: Susceptibility maps obtained with the spiral acquisition and the model-based reconstruction agree with the ones obtained with the spin-warp gradient echo acquisition. Using the 3D spiral acquisition, full brain susceptibility maps at the resolution of 1 mm isotropic are obtained in 23 s CONCLUSIONS: Image distortions and blurring due to magnetic field inhomogeneity are removed while maintaining tissue magnetic susceptibility information, resulting in QSM maps in much shorter acquisition time.

Wave-CAIPI for highly accelerated MP-RAGE imaging.

PURPOSE: To introduce a highly accelerated T1-weighted magnetization-prepared rapid gradient echo (MP-RAGE) acquisition that uses wave-controlled aliasing in parallel imaging (wave-CAIPI) encoding to retain high image quality. METHODS: Significant acceleration of the MP-RAGE sequence is demonstrated using the wave-CAIPI technique. Here, sinusoidal waveforms are used to spread aliasing in all three directions to improve the g-factor. Combined with a rapid (2 s) coil sensitivity acquisition and data-driven trajectory calibration, we propose an online integrated acquisition-reconstruction pipeline for highly efficient MP-RAGE imaging. RESULTS: The 9-fold accelerated MP-RAGE acquisition can be performed in 71 s, with a maximum and average g-factor of gmax = 1.27 and gavg = 1.06 at 3T. Compared with the state-of-the-art method controlled aliasing in parallel imaging results in higher acceleration (2D-CAIPIRINHA), this is a factor of 4.6/1.4 improvement in gmax /gavg . In addition, we demonstrate a 57 s acquisition at 7T with 12-fold acceleration. This acquisition has a g-factor performance of gmax = 1.15 and gavg = 1.04. CONCLUSION: Wave encoding overcomes the g-factor noise amplification penalty and allows for an order of magnitude acceleration of MP-RAGE acquisitions. Magn Reson Med 79:401-406, 2018. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Single-step quantitative susceptibility mapping with variational penalties.

Quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) estimates the underlying tissue magnetic susceptibility from the gradient echo (GRE) phase signal through background phase removal and dipole inversion steps. Each of these steps typically requires the solution of an ill-posed inverse problem and thus necessitates additional regularization. Recently developed single-step QSM algorithms directly relate the unprocessed GRE phase to the unknown susceptibility distribution, thereby requiring the solution of a single inverse problem. In this work, we show that such a holistic approach provides susceptibility estimation with artifact mitigation and develop efficient algorithms that involve simple analytical solutions for all of the optimization steps. Our methods employ total variation (TV) and total generalized variation (TGV) to jointly perform the background removal and dipole inversion in a single step. Using multiple spherical mean value (SMV) kernels of varying radii permits high-fidelity background removal whilst retaining the phase information in the cortex. Using numerical simulations, we demonstrate that the proposed single-step methods reduce the reconstruction error by up to 66% relative to the multi-step methods that involve SMV background filtering with the same number of SMV kernels, followed by TV- or TGV-regularized dipole inversion. In vivo single-step experiments demonstrate a dramatic reduction in dipole streaking artifacts and improved homogeneity of image contrast. These acquisitions employ the rapid three-dimensional echo planar imaging (3D EPI) and Wave-CAIPI (controlled aliasing in parallel imaging) trajectories for signal-to-noise ratio-efficient whole-brain imaging. Herein, we also demonstrate the multi-echo capability of the Wave-CAIPI sequence for the first time, and introduce an automated, phase-sensitive coil sensitivity estimation scheme based on a 4-s calibration acquisition. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Arterial Spin Labeling Perfusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging Performed in Acute Perinatal Stroke Reveals Hyperperfusion Associated With Ischemic Injury.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Perfusion-weighted imaging in adults with acute stroke often reveals hypoperfusion in the ischemic core and in a surrounding area of nondiffusion-restricted penumbral tissue. Perinatal stroke is common, but the perfusion pattern is rarely documented. We aimed to describe the perfusion pattern in newborns with perinatal stroke. METHODS: Neonates with clinical features of acute stroke underwent magnetic resonance imaging. Perfusion data were obtained using pseudocontinuous arterial spin labeling. Strokes were classified as arterial, venous, or both. Core infarction was determined by the presence of restricted diffusion on diffusion-weighted imaging. Perfusion-weighted imaging and susceptibility-weighted imaging signal in the ischemic area were visually compared with the homologous region in the contralesional hemisphere. Electroencephalogram data were evaluated for seizure activity. RESULTS: In 25 neonates with acute stroke, 8 of 11 (73%) with arterial ischemic stroke demonstrated hyperperfusion, 1 of 9 (11%) with venous stroke, and 4 of 5 (80%) with both. Hypoperfusion was observed in 3 of 9 (33%) with venous and none with arterial ischemic stroke. Perfusion was normal in 4 of 9 (45%) with venous and 1 of 5 (20%) with both. Twenty-one of 24 patients (88%) with electroencephalogram data had either electrographic seizures or focal sharp waves in the ipsilesional hemisphere (11/11 arterial ischemic stroke, 6/9 venous, and 4/5 both). CONCLUSIONS: Perfusion-weighted imaging can be obtained in neonates with acute stroke and often reveals hyperperfusion in the infarct core. Penumbra in arterial ischemic stroke is seldom found. Hyperperfusion may be caused by poststroke reperfusion or to neuronal hyperexcitability of stroke-associated seizure. Its identification may be useful for consideration of therapy for acute neonatal stroke.

RARE/turbo spin echo imaging with Simultaneous Multislice Wave-CAIPI.

PURPOSE: To enable highly accelerated RARE/Turbo Spin Echo (TSE) imaging using Simultaneous MultiSlice (SMS) Wave-CAIPI acquisition with reduced g-factor penalty. METHODS: SMS Wave-CAIPI incurs slice shifts across simultaneously excited slices while playing sinusoidal gradient waveforms during the readout of each encoding line. This results in an efficient k-space coverage that spreads aliasing in all three dimensions to fully harness the encoding power of coil sensitivities. The novel MultiPINS radiofrequency (RF) pulses dramatically reduce the power deposition of multiband (MB) refocusing pulse, thus allowing high MB factors within the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) limit. RESULTS: Wave-CAIPI acquisition with MultiPINS permits whole brain coverage with 1 mm isotropic resolution in 70 s at effective MB factor 13, with maximum and average g-factor penalties of gmax = 1.34 and gavg = 1.12, and without √R penalty. With blipped-CAIPI, the g-factor performance was degraded to gmax = 3.24 and gavg = 1.42; a 2.4-fold increase in gmax relative to Wave-CAIPI. At this MB factor, the SAR of the MultiBand and PINS pulses are 4.2 and 1.9 times that of the MultiPINS pulse, while the peak RF power are 19.4 and 3.9 times higher. CONCLUSION: Combination of the two technologies, Wave-CAIPI and MultiPINS pulse, enables highly accelerated RARE/TSE imaging with low SNR penalty at reduced SAR.

Wave-CAIPI for highly accelerated 3D imaging.

PURPOSE: To introduce the wave-CAIPI (controlled aliasing in parallel imaging) acquisition and reconstruction technique for highly accelerated 3D imaging with negligible g-factor and artifact penalties. METHODS: The wave-CAIPI 3D acquisition involves playing sinusoidal gy and gz gradients during the readout of each kx encoding line while modifying the 3D phase encoding strategy to incur interslice shifts as in 2D-CAIPI acquisitions. The resulting acquisition spreads the aliasing evenly in all spatial directions, thereby taking full advantage of 3D coil sensitivity distribution. By expressing the voxel spreading effect as a convolution in image space, an efficient reconstruction scheme that does not require data gridding is proposed. Rapid acquisition and high-quality image reconstruction with wave-CAIPI is demonstrated for high-resolution magnitude and phase imaging and quantitative susceptibility mapping. RESULTS: Wave-CAIPI enables full-brain gradient echo acquisition at 1 mm isotropic voxel size and R = 3 × 3 acceleration with maximum g-factors of 1.08 at 3T and 1.05 at 7T. Relative to the other advanced Cartesian encoding strategies (2D-CAIPI and bunched phase encoding) wave-CAIPI yields up to two-fold reduction in maximum g-factor for nine-fold acceleration at both field strengths. CONCLUSION: Wave-CAIPI allows highly accelerated 3D acquisitions with low artifact and negligible g-factor penalties, and may facilitate clinical application of high-resolution volumetric imaging.

Blipped-controlled aliasing in parallel imaging for simultaneous multislice echo planar imaging with reduced g-factor penalty.

Simultaneous multislice Echo Planar Imaging (EPI) acquisition using parallel imaging can decrease the acquisition time for diffusion imaging and allow full-brain, high-resolution functional MRI (fMRI) acquisitions at a reduced repetition time (TR). However, the unaliasing of simultaneously acquired, closely spaced slices can be difficult, leading to a high g-factor penalty. We introduce a method to create interslice image shifts in the phase encoding direction to increase the distance between aliasing pixels. The shift between the slices is induced using sign- and amplitude-modulated slice-select gradient blips simultaneous with the EPI phase encoding blips. This achieves the desired shifts but avoids an undesired "tilted voxel" blurring artifact associated with previous methods. We validate the method in 3× slice-accelerated spin-echo and gradient-echo EPI at 3 T and 7 T using 32-channel radio frequency (RF) coil brain arrays. The Monte-Carlo simulated average g-factor penalty of the 3-fold slice-accelerated acquisition with interslice shifts is <1% at 3 T (compared with 32% without slice shift). Combining 3× slice acceleration with 2× inplane acceleration, the g-factor penalty becomes 19% at 3 T and 10% at 7 T (compared with 41% and 23% without slice shift). We demonstrate the potential of the method for accelerating diffusion imaging by comparing the fiber orientation uncertainty, where the 3-fold faster acquisition showed no noticeable degradation.

Correlation chemical shift imaging with low-power adiabatic pulses and constant-density spiral trajectories.

In this work we introduce the concept of correlation chemical shift imaging (CCSI). Novel CCSI pulse sequences are demonstrated on clinical scanners for two-dimensional Correlation Spectroscopy (COSY) and Total Correlation Spectroscopy (TOCSY) imaging experiments. To date there has been limited progress reported towards a feasible and robust multivoxel 2D COSY. Localized 2D TOCSY imaging is shown for the first time in this work. Excitation with adiabatic GOIA-W(16,4) pulses (Gradient Offset Independent Adiabaticity Wurst modulation) provides minimal chemical shift displacement error, reduced lipid contamination from subcutaneous fat, uniform optimal flip angles, and efficient mixing for coupled spins, while enabling short repetition times due to low power requirements. Constant-density spiral readout trajectories are used to acquire simultaneously two spatial dimensions and f(2) frequency dimension in (k(x),k(y),t(2)) space in order to speed up data collection, while f(1) frequency dimension is encoded by consecutive time increments of t(1) in (k(x),k(y),t(1),t(2)) space. The efficient spiral sampling of the k-space enables the acquisition of a single-slice 2D COSY dataset with an 8 × 8 matrix in 8:32 min on 3 T clinical scanners, which makes it feasible for in vivo studies on human subjects. Here we present the first results obtained on phantoms, human volunteers and patients with brain tumors. The patient data obtained by us represent the first clinical demonstration of a feasible and robust multivoxel 2D COSY. Compared to the 2D J-resolved method, 2D COSY and TOCSY provide increased spectral dispersion which scales up with increasing main magnetic field strength and may have improved ability to unambiguously identify overlapping metabolites. It is expected that the new developments presented in this work will facilitate in vivo application of 2D chemical shift correlation MRS in basic science and clinical studies.

Neurologic 3D MR spectroscopic imaging with low-power adiabatic pulses and fast spiral acquisition.

PURPOSE: To improve clinical three-dimensional (3D) MR spectroscopic imaging with more accurate localization and faster acquisition schemes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Institutional review board approval and patient informed consent were obtained. Data were acquired with a 3-T MR imager and a 32-channel head coil in phantoms, five healthy volunteers, and five patients with glioblastoma. Excitation was performed with localized adiabatic spin-echo refocusing (LASER) by using adiabatic gradient-offset independent adiabaticity wideband uniform rate and smooth truncation (GOIA-W[16,4]) pulses with 3.5-msec duration, 20-kHz bandwidth, 0.81-kHz amplitude, and 45-msec echo time. Interleaved constant-density spirals simultaneously encoded one frequency and two spatial dimensions. Conventional phase encoding (PE) (1-cm3 voxels) was performed after LASER excitation and was the reference standard. Spectra acquired with spiral encoding at similar and higher spatial resolution and with shorter imaging time were compared with those acquired with PE. Metabolite levels were fitted with software, and Bland-Altman analysis was performed. RESULTS: Clinical 3D MR spectroscopic images were acquired four times faster with spiral protocols than with the elliptical PE protocol at low spatial resolution (1 cm3). Higher-spatial-resolution images (0.39 cm3) were acquired twice as fast with spiral protocols compared with the low-spatial-resolution elliptical PE protocol. A minimum signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 5 was obtained with spiral protocols under these conditions and was considered clinically adequate to reliably distinguish metabolites from noise. The apparent SNR loss was not linear with decreasing voxel sizes because of longer local T2* times. Improvement of spectral line width from 4.8 Hz to 3.5 Hz was observed at high spatial resolution. The Bland-Altman agreement between spiral and PE data is characterized by narrow 95% confidence intervals for their differences (0.12, 0.18 of their means). GOIA-W(16,4) pulses minimize chemical-shift displacement error to 2.1%, reduce nonuniformity of excitation to 5%, and eliminate the need for outer volume suppression. CONCLUSION: The proposed adiabatic spiral 3D MR spectroscopic imaging sequence can be performed in a standard clinical MR environment. Improvements in image quality and imaging time could enable more routine acquisition of spectroscopic data than is possible with current pulse sequences.

Broadband slab selection with B1+ mitigation at 7T via parallel spectral-spatial excitation.

Chemical shift imaging benefits from signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and chemical shift dispersion increases at stronger main field such as 7 Tesla, but the associated shorter radiofrequency (RF) wavelengths encountered require B1+ mitigation over both the spatial field of view (FOV) and a specified spectral bandwidth. The bandwidth constraint presents a challenge for previously proposed spatially tailored B1+ mitigation methods, which are based on a type of echovolumnar trajectory referred to as "spokes" or "fast-kz". Although such pulses, in conjunction with parallel excitation methodology, can efficiently mitigate large B1+ inhomogeneities and achieve relatively short pulse durations with slice-selective excitations, they exhibit a narrow-band off-resonance response and may not be suitable for applications that require B1+ mitigation over a large spectral bandwidth. This work outlines a design method for a general parallel spectral-spatial excitation that achieves a target-error minimization simultaneously over a bandwidth of frequencies and a specified spatial-domain. The technique is demonstrated for slab-selective excitation with in-plane B1+ mitigation over a 600-Hz bandwidth. The pulse design method is validated in a water phantom at 7T using an eight-channel transmit array system. The results show significant increases in the pulse's spectral bandwidth, with no additional pulse duration penalty and only a minor tradeoff in spatial B1+ mitigation compared to the standard spoke-based parallel RF design.

Fast slice-selective radio-frequency excitation pulses for mitigating B+1 inhomogeneity in the human brain at 7 Tesla.

A novel radio-frequency (RF) pulse design algorithm is presented that generates fast slice-selective excitation pulses that mitigate B+1 inhomogeneity present in the human brain at high field. The method is provided an estimate of the B+1 field in an axial slice of the brain and then optimizes the placement of sinc-like "spokes" in kz via an L1-norm penalty on candidate (kx, ky) locations; an RF pulse and gradients are then designed based on these weighted points. Mitigation pulses are designed and demonstrated at 7T in a head-shaped water phantom and the brain; in each case, the pulses mitigate a significantly nonuniform transmit profile and produce nearly uniform flip angles across the field of excitation (FOX). The main contribution of this work, the sparsity-enforced spoke placement and pulse design algorithm, is derived for conventional single-channel excitation systems and applied in the brain at 7T, but readily extends to lower field systems, nonbrain applications, and multichannel parallel excitation arrays.