Improvement in diagnostic quality of structural and angiographic MRI of the brain using motion correction with interleaved, volumetric navigators.

Abstract

IntroductionSubject movements lead to severe artifacts in magnetic resonance (MR) brain imaging. In this study we evaluate the diagnostic image quality in T1-weighted, T2-weighted, and time-of-flight angiographic MR sequences when using a flexible, navigator-based prospective motion correction system (iMOCO).MethodsFive healthy volunteers were scanned during different movement scenarios with and without (+/-) iMOCO activated. An experienced neuroradiologist graded images for image quality criteria (grey-white-matter discrimination, basal ganglia, and small structure and vessel delineation), and general image quality on a four-grade scale.ResultsIn scans with deliberate motion, there was a significant improvement in the image quality with iMOCO compared to the scans without iMOCO in both general image impression (T1 pConclusionThe evaluation showed that iMOCO enables substantial improvements in image quality in scans affected by subject movement, recovering important diagnostic information in an otherwise unusable scan.