Free Breathing Black-Blood Systolic Imaging Using Heart Rate Prediction and Motion Compensated Reconstruction

Maelene Lohezic^1,2, Brice Fernandez^1,2, Julien Oster^2,3, Damien Mandry^2,4, Olivier Pietquin^3,5, Pierre-Andre Vuissoz^2,3, Jacques Felblinger^2,3

High resolution black-blood systolic imaging is difficult to obtain due to long acquisition time incompatible with breath hold and to preparation time needed. A new method allowing free breathing black-blood systolic imaging is presented and validated on five healthy volunteers. It combines RR interval prediction, respiratory motion estimation and motion compensated reconstruction. The proposed method showed improvements when compared to the average of 3 free breathing acquisitions and to breath-hold images. Results have been obtained on 256x256 acquisitions. They can be extended to higher resolutions, allowing accurate examination of heart structures, even right ventricle wall or papillary muscles.