Pilot Tone Navigated Motion Correction in DCE-MRI

Motivation: Addressing the challenge of respiratory motion in abdominal DCE-MRI, especially in pediatric patients, to improve image quality and enhance quantitative DCE-MRI analysis. Goal(s): To develop a motion correction method using PilotTone navigators (PTnavs) to enhance DCE-MRI quality and reliability. Approach: We extract PTnav, create a linear motion model using binning based reference motion parameters. We then apply the motion model to the PTnav for each spoke to estimate its motion and correct for it. We evaluate the method on non-contrast volunteer and pediatric DCE-MRI data. Results: Successful elimination of motion artifacts and improved image quality, reduced image alignment and improved signal-time-intensity curves. Impact: The proposed PT-based motion correction effectively overcomes the challenges of previous motion correction methods, eliminating respiratory motion artifacts and enhancing image quality and misalignment in high-temporal-resolution DCE-MRI. This advancement improves diagnostic accuracy, particularly in pediatric cases with unpredictable breathing patterns.