Abstract #2196

Removing Gradient Induced Voltages from 12-lead ECGs acquired during DW-EPI and fMRI brain Imaging

Mikayel Dabaghayan¹, Shelley Hua Lei Zhang¹, Zion Tsz Ho Tse², Charles L Dumoulin³, Ronald Watkins⁴, Wei Wang¹, Jay Ward⁵, and Ehud Jeruham Schmidt⁶

¹Radiology, Brigham and Womens Hospital, Boston, MA, United States, ²Engineering, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, United States, ³Radiology, Cincinatti Childrens Hospital Medical Center, Cincinatti, OH, United States, ⁴Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States, ⁵E-Trolz Inc., North Andover, MA, United States, ⁶Radiology, Brigham and Womens Hospital, Newton, MA, United States

We developed a technique to restore the ECG signals distorted by MRI gradient-induced voltages (GIV) acquired during fMRI and DW-EPI brain imaging sequences. Brain EPI sequences produce the largest ECG artifacts, presenting a large challenge to GIV removal. We used a theoretical equation with 19 parameters, which characterized the GIVs at each ECG electrode based on the simultaneously recorded gradient waveforms. A rapid training sequence permitted computing the equation coefficients, followed by real-time gradient-induced voltage removal during imaging. FIR notch filters were subsequently applied to remove some residual spikes. The method succeeded in removing most GIVs, excluding artifacts at the beginning and end of imaging periods, which resulted from amplifier non-linearity.

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