Phase contrast magnetic resonance imaging
Phase contrast magnetic resonance imaging is a specific type of magnetic resonance imaging used primarily to determine flow velocities. PC-MRI can be considered a method of Magnetic Resonance Velocimetry. It also provides a method of magnetic resonance angiography. Since modern PC-MRI is typically time-resolved, it provides a means of 4D imaging.
How it Works
s with an odd number of protons or neutrons have a randomly aligned angular spin momentum. When placed in a strong magnetic field, some of these spins align with the axis of the external field, which causes a net 'longitudinal' magnetization. These spins precess about the axis of the external field at a frequency proportional to the strength of that field. Then, energy is added to the system through a Radio frequency pulse to 'excite' the spins, changing the axis that the spins precess about. These spins can then be observed by receiver coils using Faraday's law of induction. Different tissues respond to the added energy in different ways, and imaging parameters can be adjusted to highlight desired tissues.All of these spins have a phase that is dependent on the atom's velocity.
Phase shift of a spin is a function of the gradient field :
where is the Gyromagnetic ratio and is defined as:
is the initial position of the spin, is the spin velocity, and is the spin acceleration.
If we only consider static spins and spins in the x-direction, we can rewrite equation for phase shift as:
We then assume that acceleration and higher order terms are negligible to simplify the expression for phase to:
where is the zeroth moment of the x-gradient and is the first moment of the x gradient.
If we take two different acquisitions with applied magnetic gradients that are the opposite of each other, we can add the results of the two acquisitions together to calculate a change in phase that is dependent on gradient:
where.
The phase shift is measured and converted to a velocity according to the following equation:
where is the maximum velocity that can be recorded and is the recorded phase shift.
The choice of defines range of velocities visible, known as the ‘dynamic range’.
A choice of below the maximum velocity in the slice will induce aliasing in the image where a velocity just greater than will be incorrectly calculated as moving in the opposite direction. However, there is a direct trade-off between the maximum velocity that can be encoded and the signal-to-noise ratio of the velocity measurements. This can be described by:
where is the signal-to-noise ratio of the image.
For an example, setting a ‘low’ will allow for better visualization of slower velocities, but any higher velocities will alias to an incorrect value. Setting a ‘high’ will allow for the proper velocity quantification, but the larger dynamic range will obscure the smaller velocity features as well as decrease SNR. Therefore, the setting of will be application dependent and care must be exercised in the selection. In order to further allow for proper velocity quantification, especially in clinical applications where the velocity dynamic range of flow is high, a dual-echo PC-MRI method with dual velocity encoding in the same repetition time has been developed. The DEPC method does not only allow for proper velocity quantification, but also reduces the total acquisition time compared to a single-echo single- PC-MRI acquisition carried out at two separate values.
To allow for more flexibility in selecting, instantaneous phase can be used to increase both dynamic range and SNR.
Encoding Methods
When each dimension of velocity is calculated based on acquisitions from oppositely applied gradients, this is known as a six-point method. However, more efficient methods are also used. Two are described here:Simple Four-point Method
Four sets of encoding gradients are used. The first is a reference and applies a negative moment in,, and. The next applies a positive moment in, and a negative moment in and. The third applies a positive moment in, and a negative moment in and. And the last applies a positive moment in, and a negative moment in and.Then, the velocities can be solved based on the phase information from the corresponding phase encodes as follows:
Balanced Four-Point Method
The balanced four-point method also includes four sets of encoding gradients. The first is the same as in the simple four-point method with negative gradients applied in all directions. The second has a negative moment in, and a positive moment in and. The third has a negative moment in, and a positive moment in and. The last has a negative moment in and a positive moment in and.This gives us the following system of equations:
Then, the velocities can be calculated:
Retrospective Cardiac and Respiratory Gating
For medical imaging, in order to get highly resolved scans in 3D space and time without motion artifacts from the heart or lungs, retrospective cardiac gating and respiratory compensation are employed. Beginning with cardiac gating, the patient's ECG signal is recorded throughout the imaging process. Similarly, the patient's respiratory patterns can be tracked throughout the scan. After the scan, the continuously collected data in k-space can be assigned accordingly to match-up with the timing of the heart beat and lung motion of the patient. This means that these scans are cardiac-averaged so the measured blood velocities are an average over multiple cardiac cycles.Applications
Phase contrast MRI is one of the main techniques for magnetic resonance angiography. This is used to generate images of arteries in order to evaluate them for stenosis, occlusions, aneurysms or other abnormalities. MRA is often used to evaluate the arteries of the neck and brain, the thoracic and abdominal aorta, the renal arteries, and the legs.Limitations
In particular, a few limitations of PC-MRI are of importance for the measured velocities:- Partial volume effects can overestimate phase leading to inaccurate velocities at the interface between materials or tissues.
- Intravoxel phase dispersion can produce a resultant phase that does not resolve the flow features accurately.
- Assuming that acceleration and higher orders of motion are negligible can be inaccurate depending on the flow field.
- Displacement artifacts occur when there is a time difference between the phase and frequency encoding. These artifacts are highest when the flow direction is within the slice plane
Vastly undersampled Isotropic Projection Reconstruction (VIPR)