Adaptive Respiratory Triggering for High Spatial and Temporal Resolution 3D DCE-MRI in the Mouse.

Alexandr Khrapichev¹, Veerle Kersemans¹, Danny Allen¹, Sean Smart¹

A method for performing high temporal and spatial resolution imaging for DCE-MRI in the mouse is presented. Respiration triggering is used to reduce motion artefact, and dummy scans are used to regenerate the T1 steady state following each breath. Both the rate and depth of the breathing change over the duration of a typical DCE-MRI scan so the numbers of dummy and imaging acquisitions per breath may need to vary in order to maximise data capture rate whilst avoiding motion. 3D gradient echo scans with an isotropic resolution of ca. 400 micron and a temporal resolution of 5 s (untriggered) and 8-9 s (triggered) is achieved. Respiratory gated and non gated scans of the mouse abdomen and thorax were acquired sequentially during the uptake from a single bolus injection of Gd contrast agent. Improvements to signal-to-noise and image fidelity are shown when using triggering.