Efficient 3D late gadolinium enhancement imaging using the CLAWS respiratory motion control algorithm

Abstract

Background Acquisition durations of navigator gated high resolution 3D late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) studies are long (1,2). While implementation of the continuously adaptive windowing strategy (CLAWS (3)) - which results in the fastest possible acquisition duration for a given breathing pattern and navigator acceptance window size - may be beneficial, the respiratory-dependent and therefore, nonsmooth k-space acquisition order during gadolinium wash-out could result in increased image artifact. This study was performed to investigate if CLAWS could be used to increase the respiratory efficiency of 3D LGE imaging without detriment to image quality. Methods Whole-heart 3D (32-36 slices, 1.5 x 1.5 x 4 mm, reconstructed to 64-72 slices, 0.7 x 0.7x.2 mm) inversionprepared segmented gradient echo imaging was performed in 18 consecutive patients on a Siemens 1.5 Tesla Avanto scanner. Two acquisitions were performed in random order, one with CLAWS respiratory motion control and one with an end-expiratory tracking accept/reject