Retrospective reconstruction of high temporal resolution cine images from real-time MRI using iterative motion correction

Cardiac function has traditionally been evaluated using breath-hold cine acquisitions. However, there is a great need for free breathing techniques in patients who have difficulty in holding their breath. Real-time cardiac MRI is a valuable alternative to the traditional breath-hold imaging approach, but the real-time images are often inferior in spatial and temporal resolution. This article presents a general method for reconstruction of high spatial and temporal resolution cine images from a real-time acquisition acquired over multiple cardiac cycles. The method combines parallel imaging and motion correction based on nonrigid registration and can be applied to arbitrary k-space trajectories. The method is demonstrated with real-time Cartesian imaging and Golden Angle radial acquisitions, and the motion-corrected acquisitions are compared with raw real-time images and breath-hold cine acquisitions in 10 (N = 10) subjects. Acceptable image quality was obtained in all motion-corrected reconstructions, and the resulting mean image quality score was (a) Cartesian real-time: 2.48, (b) Golden Angle real-time: 1.90 (1.002.50), (c) Cartesian motion correction: 3.92, (d) Radial motion correction: 4.58, and (e) Breath-hold cine: 5.00. The proposed method provides a flexible way to obtain high-quality, high-resolution cine images in patients with difficulty holding their breath. Magn Reson Med, 2012. (c) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.