Motivation: The need for a non-ionizing, high-resolution 3D lung imaging method with minimized motion artifacts to evaluate pulmonary disease. Goal(s): To develop a free-breathing, high-resolution volumetric lung MRI technique that reduces motion blurring and provides functional ventilation maps. Approach: Free-breathing pulmonary images were acquired using a 3D SPGR UTE sequence with a 3D conical trajectory. Respiratory motion was extracted from central k-space, enabling phase-resolved reconstruction, ventilation mapping, and motion-compensated reconstruction. Results: The integration of 3D conical readouts with motion-compensated reconstruction yielded high-resolution images devoid of respiratory motion artifacts. Regional ventilation mapping derived from the reconstruction pipeline was validated in healthy subjects. Impact: Free-breathing 3D conical acquisition with motion compensation enables isotropic, high-resolution volumetric lung imaging with reduced motion blurring. This technique is crucial for diagnosing and monitoring lung diseases like COPD and pulmonary fibrosis, significantly enhancing noninvasive diagnostic capabilities and treatment planning.
Li et al. (2025) studied this question.