Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave Radar-based respiratory motion correction for cardiac MRI: Initial Results

Motivation: Cardiac MRI is susceptible to motion-induced artifacts because of the sequential data acquisition process. Goal(s): Evaluate the feasibility of utilizing a Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) Radar as a quantitative respiratory motion correction signal for free-breathing cardiac MRI. Approach: A short calibration scan was performed to establish a motion model relating the FMCW Radar signal to the respiratory-induced heart motion. The established model was then applied during the imaging scan to perform retrospective motion correction for each k-space readout line. Results: The FMCW radar showed good correlation to the respiratory-induced heart motion, and the proposed method effectively improved the image quality. Impact: This study demonstrated the feasibility of utilizing FMCW radar as a surrogate to accomplish motion correction in free-breathing cardiac MRI.