Free-Breathing Phase-Resolved Oxygen-Enhanced Pulmonary MRI Based on 3D Stack-of-Stars UTE Sequence

Xu, Pengfei; Zhang, Jichang; Nan, Zhen; Meersmann, Thomas; Wang, Chengbo

Abstract

Compared with hyperpolarized noble gas MRI, oxygen-enhanced lung imaging is a cost-effective approach to investigate lung function. In this study, we investigated the feasibility of free-breathing phase-resolved oxygen-enhanced pulmonary MRI based on a 3D stack-of-stars ultra-short echo time (UTE) sequence. We conducted both computer simulation and in vivo experiments and calculated percent signal enhancement maps of four different respiratory phases on four healthy volunteers from the end of expiration to the end of inspiration. The phantom experiment was implemented to verify simulation results. The respiratory phase was segmented based on the extracted respiratory signal and sliding window reconstruction, providing phase-resolved pulmonary MRI. Demons registration algorithm was applied to compensate for respiratory motion. The mean percent signal enhancement of the average phase increases from anterior to posterior region, matching previous literature. More details of pulmonary tissues were observed on post-oxygen inhalation images through the phase-resolved technique. Phase-resolved UTE pulmonary MRI shows the potential as a valuable method for oxygen-enhanced MRI that enables the investigation of lung ventilation on middle states of the respiratory cycle.

Citation

Xu, P., Zhang, J., Nan, Z., Meersmann, T., & Wang, C. (2022). Free-Breathing Phase-Resolved Oxygen-Enhanced Pulmonary MRI Based on 3D Stack-of-Stars UTE Sequence. Sensors, 22(9), Article 3270. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22093270

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 22, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Apr 24, 2022
• Publication Date: May 1, 2022
• Deposit Date: Jun 26, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 29, 2023
• Journal: Sensors
• Electronic ISSN: 1424-8220
• Publisher: MDPI AG
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 9
• Article Number: 3270
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/s22093270
• Keywords: Oxygen-enhanced lung MRI; phase resolve; free-breathing; UTE sequence; stack-of-stars
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/22317806
• Publisher URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/22/9/3270