Abstract
In this paper, a strategy is proposed to estimate the R-peaks in ECG signals recorded inside a 7 T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner in order to reduce the disturbances due to the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) effect and to finally obtain high quality cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) images. We first show that the cyclostationarity property of the ECG signal disturbed by the MHD effect can be quantified by means of cyclic spectral analysis. Then, this information is forwarded as input to a cyclostationary source extraction algorithm applied to a set of ECG recordings acquired inside the MRI scanner in a Feet first (Ff) and a Head first (Hf) positions. Finally, detection of the R-peaks in the estimated cyclostationary signal completes the proposed procedure. Validation of the method is performed by comparing the estimated with clinical R-peaks annotations provided with the real world dataset. The obtained results are promising and future research directions are discussed.
Highlights
Introduced in the early 1980s, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is nowadays widely used in clinical practice and Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (CMR) is a non invasive medical imaging technique regarded as a powerful diagnostic tool in cardiology that aims to create still or animated (Cine Imaging) imaging sequences of the heart during the cardiac cycle
In order to estimated the R-peaks of the ECGs distorted by the MHD effect, the following procedure is proposed: 1) Estimate the fundamental cyclic frequency α0 of the ECGs recorded inside the MRI scanner both for Feet first (Ff) and Head first (Hf) positions
3 Tesla (3 T) MRI scanners are commonly used in clinical practice, research applications in CMR are using 7 T MRI scanners
Summary
Introduced in the early 1980s, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is nowadays widely used in clinical practice and Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (CMR) is a non invasive medical imaging technique regarded as a powerful diagnostic tool in cardiology that aims to create still or animated (Cine Imaging) imaging sequences of the heart during the cardiac cycle. Synchronization of data acquisition with the cardiac cycle is necessary for imaging the heart because it is a constantly moving organ. The resulting Magnetic Resonance (MR) image would be strongly affected by motion blur. CMR studies were intially performed at a field strength of 1.5 Tesla until the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) approved in 2002 using 3 Tesla (3 T) MRI scanners for whole body imaging [1]. 3 T MRI scanners are well established in clinical routine, but 7 T MRI scanners are used mainly for research
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