Extracting Breathing Signal Using Fourier Transform from Cine Magnetic Resonance Imaging

• Main Authors: Jing Cai, Yilin Liu, Fangfang Yin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2015-01-01
• Series: Cancer Translational Medicine
• Subjects: Four-dimensional-MRI; Fourier transform; motion management; respiratory motion
• Online Access: http://www.cancertm.com/article.asp?issn=2395-3977;year=2015;volume=1;issue=1;spage=16;epage=20;aulast=Cai

Aim: The objective of this study is to investigate the feasibility of extracting breathing signal from the cine magnetic resonance images (MRI) using Fourier transform (FT) and its application in four-dimensional-MRI. Methods: A total of 10 subjects were imaged continuously during free breathing using a true fast imaging with steady-state precession MR sequence. Breathing signal of each subject was determined by two means: (1) by tracking the displacement of a region of interest (ROI) (ROI-displacement); and (2) by tracking the phase change of pixel (0, 1) in the FT of cine MRI (FT-phase). Respiratory phases were calculated from the breathing signal and compared between the two methods. To test the application of FT-phase method in four-dimensional-MRI, an in-house built MR-compatible motion phantom was imaged using multi-slice cine MRI. Four-dimensional-MRI were retrospectively reconstructed using the breathing signal determined using the FT-phase method. Results: The mean difference in the respiratory phase between the two methods is −3.13 ± 4.85%, and the mean correlation coefficient is 0.97 ± 0.02. In the phantom study, four-dimensional-MRI clearly revealed sinusoidal motions of the object with minimal artifacts. Conclusion: Our preliminary results demonstrated that breathing signal can be extracted using FT-phase method with highly accurate respiratory phase information, and can be used for four-dimensional-MRI reconstruction.