Quantification of T1, T2 relaxation times from Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting radially undersampled data using analytical transformations

Abstract

Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) estimates magnetic parameters related to tissue, such as T1, T2 relaxation times and proton density. MR fingerprinting (MRF) is a new concept that uses pseudo-random, incoherent measurements to create a unique fingerprint for each tissue type to quantify magnet parameters. This paper aims to enhance MRF performance by investigating (i) the most suitable acquisition trajectory, and (ii) analytical transformations, suitable for radial acquisitions. Highly undersampled MRF brain (k, t)-space data have been simulated and non-linearly reconstructed to exploit the low-rank property of dynamic imaging. Based on our findings, the radial trajectory is the most suitable for MRF compared to Cartesian and spiral acquisitions. Perhaps this is due to the fact that its aliasing artifacts are more noise-like, and that unlike spiral trajectories, it can use analytical transformations that do not require re-gridding. One such analytical algorithm is the spline reconstruction technique (SRT) that is based on a novel numerical implementation of an analytic representation of the inverse Radon transform. Here, for the first time, this algorithm is applied to MR radial data. Reconstructions using SRT were compared to the ones using filtered back-projection. SRT provided images of higher contrast, lower bias, which resulted in more accurate T1, T2 values.