Lung MRI using an MR-Compatible active breathing control (MR-ABC)

This work introduces an MR-compatible active breathing control device (MR-ABC) that can be applied to lung imaging. An MR-ABC consists of a pneumotachograph for respiratory monitoring and an airway-sealing unit. Using an MR-ABC, the subjects were forced to suspend breathing for short time intervals, which were used in turn for data acquisition. While the breathing flow was stopped, data acquisition was triggered by ECG to achieve simultaneous cardiac and respiratory synchronization and thus avoid artifacts from blood flow or heart movement. The flow stoppage allowed a prolonged acquisition window of up to 1.5 sec. To evaluate the potential of an MR-ABC for segmented k-space acquisition, diaphragm displacement was investigated in five volunteers and compared with images acquired using breath-holding, a respiratory belt, and free breathing. Respiratory movement was comparatively low using the breath-hold approach, a respiratory belt or an MR-ABC. During free-breathing diaphragm displacement was comparatively large. To demonstrate the potential of an MR-ABC, lung MRI was performed using whole-chest 3D gradient-echo imaging, multislice turbo spin-echo (TSE) imaging, and short tau inversion recovery TSE (STIR-TSE). Cardiorespiratory synchronization was used for each sequence. None of the volunteers reported any discomfort or inconvenience when using an MR-ABC. Flow stoppage of up to 2.5 sec per breathing cycle was well tolerated, therefore allowing for a reduction of the total imaging time as compared to usage of a respiratory belt or MR navigator.