Magnetic Field Gradient Artifact Reduction on ECG for Improved Triggering

Julien Oster^1,2, Olivier Pietquin^1,3, Michel Kraemer⁴, Jacques Felblinger^1,2

Cardiac MR Acquisitions have to be synchronized with heart activity to prevent from motion artifacts. Electrocardiogram (ECG) is therefore the most accurate tool. Magnetic Field Gradients (MFG) artifacts are unfortunately induced on ECG signals. In this paper a new real-time MFG artifact reduction method is presented. This technique is based on the merging of both ECG and MFG artifact models. An estimation of the model parameters is recursively updated by nonlinear Bayesian filtering. The MFG signals can then be filtered with the MFG artifact model parameters in real-time. The herein presented method outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms and enables accurate triggering.