Prospective motion correction with 3D Orbital Navigators for robust and rapid susceptibility weighted imaging

Motivation: The quality of susceptibility weighted images may deteriorate under subject motion, especially at high fields, impairing further data analysis. Goal(s): To mitigate motion artifacts through prospective motion correction(PMC) by employing 3D orbital navigators and real-time processing of a linear perturbation model. Approach: Orbital navigators were integrated into a high-resolution 3D EPI sequence for rapid susceptibility-weighted imaging at 7T, and a real-time motion estimation pipeline was established. The impact of prospective correction for large instructed motion on the resulting images was investigated. Results: Prospective motion correction successfully preserved the image quality of susceptibility weighted images, yielding results comparable to a scan without instructed motion. Impact: The improvements in image quality of the susceptibility weighted images underline the high potential of a linear perturbation model with Orbital Navigators for precise and rapid prospective motion correction in ultra-high field gradient echo imaging and potentially many more applications.