Improved image reconstruction incorporating non-rigid motion correction for cardiac MRI using BLADE acquisition

The application of the BLADE sequence for dark blood T2-weighted cardiac MRI has the potential for increasing the spatial resolution thereby improving the detailed depiction of morphology [ 1 ]. While the BLADE sequence using periodically rotating overlapping parallel lines (PROPELLER) [ 2 ] inherently provides a degree of motion tolerance, significant respiratory motion may result in image artifacts. Rigid body motion correction applied to PROPELLER MRI [ 2 ] is well suited to applications such brain imaging but is problematic in cardiac MR where the motion is not rigid. Non-rigid image registration has been successfully applied for motion corrected averaging in cardiac MR [ 3 ]. In the present study, non-rigid motion correction was applied to individual BLADE images prior to combination as a high resolution image, to migitate respiratory motion artifacts that arise despite the use of a navigator.