Inter-breath-hold registration for the production of high resolution cardiac MR volumes

Med Image Comput Comput Assist Interv. 2005;8(Pt 2):894-901. doi: 10.1007/11566489_110.

Abstract

High resolution MRI images of the beating heart permit observation of detailed anatomical features and enable quantification of small changes in metrics of cardiac function. To obtain approximately isotropic sampling with an adequate spatial and temporal resolution, these images need to be acquired in multiple breath-holds. They are, therefore, often affected by through-plane discontinuities due to inconsistent breath-hold positions. This paper presents a method to correct for these discontinuities by performing breath-hold-by-breath-hold registration of high resolution 3D data to radial long axis images. The corrected images appear free of discontinuities, and it was found that they could be delineated more reproducibly than uncorrected images. This reduces the sample size required to detect systematic changes in blood pool volume by 57% at end systole and 78% at end diastole.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Artifacts*
  • Heart / anatomy & histology*
  • Humans
  • Image Enhancement / methods*
  • Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Imaging, Three-Dimensional / methods*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Respiratory Mechanics*
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Subtraction Technique*