A Model-Based Approach for Deformable Registration of Ungated Cardiac Perfusion MRI

Ganesh Adluru¹, Alexis Harrison², Chris McGann², Edward V.R. DiBella¹

Cardiac perfusion MRI without ECG gating can be a promising alternative for imaging patients with atrial fibrillation and for imaging at high field strengths. Self-gating techniques can be used to retrospectively bin ungated images into approximate systole and diastole. However cardiac and respiratory motion can still be present in these self-gated images. Here we propose a model-based deformable registration approach that uses a two-compartment contrast model to remove the residual motion. A model reference image for each image in the dynamic sequence is generated and deformable registration using a finite element based method is performed to obtain motion free images.