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Abstract #0514

Adaptive Averaging Applied to Dynamic Imaging of the Soft Palate

SUMMA25Andrew David Scott1, Malcolm Birch1, Marc Eric Miquel1

1Clinical Physics, Barts and the London NHS Trust, London, United Kingdom


Real-time MR imaging of the soft-palate is challenging and gated techniques rely on sufficient similarity between repetitions of a speech task. The adaptive averaging technique selectively averages images acquired without gating, based on a similarity measure. We apply this technique to low SNR high frame-rate soft-palate imaging. Real-time mid-sagittal images were acquired while a subject repeatedly counted from 1-5 without gating or timing requirements. Adaptive averaging was retrospectively performed and improved image quality was demonstrated. The technique is also able to improve the quality of sufficiently long real-time acquisitions without repetition, due to the limited number of possible soft-palate configurations.