Motivation: Accurate visualization of the coronaries is essential for cardiovascular assessment. This study aims to improve coronary sharpness by combining self-gating extracted from the k-space center of the SI-projection, motion binning, and low-rank compressed sensing reconstructions. Goal(s): To improve coronary artery visualization with free-breathing non-contrast MRI at 3T. Approach: Respiratory signal was extracted from the k-space center of the SI-projection in free-breathing whole-heart data. The data were binned and reconstructed with compressed sensing. Coronary sharpness was compared to the standard scanner reconstruction. Results: Respiratory motion was extracted from whole-heart data, improving coronary artery visualization and vessel sharpness, confirming the effectiveness of the reconstruction technique. Impact: This work presents an approach for automatic respiratory motion detection and binning that improves motion compensation of whole-heart images. It provides sharper visualization of the coronaries compared with conventional methods, potentially aiding clinicians in more reliable diagnosis of coronary disease.
Tagliabue et al. (Tue,) studied this question.