Comparison of cardiac diffusion MRI using multiple prospective respiratory motion correction techniques

A novel prospective motion correction control system with slice tracking (MNav-CoS) was compared with three other prospective respiratory motion correction techniques in performing free-breathing cardiovascular diffusion tensor imaging (cDTI) acquisitions. Ten healthy volunteers underwent cDTI using an M2SE sequence. The performance of the proposed MNav-CoS was compared with three respiratory compensation techniques: multiple breath-holds (BH), free breathing with respiratory gating (Gate), and free breathing with single navigator slice tracking (Nav). Data for five diffusion weightings were acquired in a single mid-ventricular slice in end systole. MD, FA, and HA maps were calculated for each technique and combinations of low and high b-values. Data from the respiratory navigators were used to estimate the total amount of cardiac through-plane motion during free breathing. The metrics derived from the diffusion tensor for MNav-CoS with blow|bhigh = 50|450 s/mm2 were MD: 1.48±0.10μm⁄ms21.48± 0.100.3em m/ms² , FA: 0.39±0.070.39± 0.07 , and HAg: -0.82±0.22°⁄%-0.82± 0.22^∘/% . All of the other respiratory compensation techniques produced a similar range of results to the MNav-CoS technique. On average, the free-breathing acquisitions with slice tracking were three times shorter than using BH. The total amount of cardiac through-plane motion during the free-breathing acquisitions ranged from 4 to 10 mm with an average of 6.2±1.7mm6.2± 1.70.3em mm . The MNav-CoS technique performed comparably to other commonly used respiratory compensation techniques. Prospective respiratory motion compensation, such as the slice tracking used with MNav-CoS, is a useful tool that offers time-saving benefits and compensates for through-plane motion present during free breathing. These techniques may be beneficial for performing longer cDTI acquisitions providing increased utility in a clinical context.