Artefacts In Clinical MRI

Kris Armoogum MSc Department of Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital Dundee DD2 1QW Kris.Armoogum@tuht.scot.nhs.uk Stephen.Gandy@tuht.scot.nhs.uk

14th Scottish MRI Seminar, Wednesday 19th November 2003

Introduction

Artefacts are parts of reconstructed images that are not present in the true anatomy. Artefacts are dependent on a variety of factors from patient movement to magnetic field inhomogeneities. Artefacts can lead to misdiagnosis if they are not recognised and/or removed. Ideally, we want all image artefacts to be below the level of user's perception.

Main classifications -

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Movement Artefacts Geometrical Artefacts Resolution/Sequence Artefacts Bo Artefacts RF Artefacts Noise

1. Movement Artefacts

Motion Artefacts patient

Flow artefact inflow/washout effect, diastole, systole, arterial flow

Reducing flow artefacts Gradient Moment Nulling

Respiratory compensation, triggering, ROPE, navigator echoes

Motion Artefact - Patient

Patient movement as outer areas of k-space acquired May mimic truncation artefact Difference truncation artefact diminishes with distance from the high contrast boundary If related to pulsation of vessels, this can be reduced by applying an anterior sat band

T2W SE Thoracic Spine

Patient Movement Artefact

Smearing of image Particularly in phase direction Solutions Immobilise the patient more effectively Reduce the scan time reduce NSA, breathold, shorter TR, less k-space lines Reduce the scan time (reduced k-space acquisition) e.g. HASTE, TSE with large turbo factor

Flow Artefact Inflow Effect

T1W GE sequence RF pulse saturates the blood momentarily in the slice (yellow) If blood is stationary, long T1 of blood means that no signal available for successive RF pulses to excite hypointense signal If velocity of inflowing blood > z/TR then full inflow occurs and the next RF pulse sees unsaturated spins in the slice Bright Blood signal Other tissues within the slice are saturated, and therefore suppressed
Image

NO FLOW 90o pulse

Next TR Dark signal

z 90o pulse Next TR Bright signal

FLOW

Flow Artefact Washout Effect

TE/2 180o pulse TE

Spin-echo sequence - 90o pulse excites spins in the slice In the absence of flow, bright signal is seen because the spins experience both the 90o and 180o pulses In the presence of flow, blood flows out of the slice and does not experience the 180o pulse no rephasing, Black Blood signal D.G. Nishimura "Time-of-Flight MR Angiography." Magn. Reson. Med. 14:194-201 (1990)
Signal Image

NO FLOW

90o pulse

FLOW

90o pulse

180o pulse

No signal

Flow Artefact I - Body

+1 T -1

Grad

S D

Phase Shift

Diastole (filling phase), systole (emptying phase). Aortic ghosts in PE direction [because FE step (msec) takes much less time than a PE (sec) step] Physiological modulation

Why only the PE Direction?

Why is motion artefact only seen in the PE direction? A FE step takes much less time (of the order of msec) than a PE step (of the order of seconds) Most motion that occurs during clinical MRI is much slower than the rapid sampling process along the FE axis However, each PE line is separated by the time interval TR which is long enough for blood to flow/move/dephase between successive phase encodings

Phase Shift Effects

D

m o
FT

o-m o

o+m

MR Signal

Systolic-diastolic switching of the flow velocity (at frequency m) modulates the MR signal (with frequency ) Two frequency sidebands (upper and lower frequency sideband components) appear as ghosts either side of the primary image

Flow Artefact II - Brain

A
Velocity profile laminar flow (Re < 2100) Velocity zero at wall, fastest at centre of lumen Continuous spread of velocities
+1 T -1

Grad

Continuous

Phase Shift

B
A = flow artefact from eye movement B = flow artefact from sagittal sinus

Flow From Sagittal Sinus

Distinguishable from Truncation artefact artefact propagates across the anatomy. Truncation artefact diminishes with distance from the high contrast boundary.

Further Flow Artefacts

B C

Flow from middle (A) cerebral arteries, (B) eye movement & sagittal sinus, and (C) salivary glands (swallowing)

Flow Popliteal Artery

Popliteal Artery

Popliteal artery flow generates artefacts across the femur. More prominent when fat suppression removes the marrow signal. May disturb interpretation of bone bruising or subchondral cysts.

Phase Shift Effects

m o
FT

o-max

o+max

MR Signal

Complex modulation frequency, made up of many component waves FT results in a spread of upper and lower sidebands - artefact Worse for GE images, due to bright blood inflow effect SE dark blood inflow effect less severe phase artefacts

Reducing Phase Flow Effects - I

High bandwidth
+2G +G

Low bandwidth

Grad 2T 2T
-G -2G

Grad T T

Large Phase Shift

Small

Phase Shift

Use sequence with a high bandwidth shorter TE Amount of dephasing generally goes up with TE2 Shorter TE minimises velocity induced phase effects

Gradient Moment Nulling

Gradient Moment Nulling (GMN) technique used for flow compensation +1 -2

+1

Phase shift

Stationary tissue (0o) unaffected Constant velocity blood (1o motion) rephased by +1-2+1 gradients Constant acceleration blood (2o) need 1+3-3+1 gradients to rephase Jerk motion (3o) need +1-4+6-4+1 gradients to rephase 2o flow comp 3o flow comp

+3 +1
Stationary tissue Constant velocity blood Constant acceleration blood

+6 +1 -1 -3 -4 -4 +1

Flow Compensation
Thoracic spine

Vertebral foramen

Two cords appear to be present in first T2W TSE image. The extra cord is flow artefact from pulsatile CSF flow. First order (+1-2+1 gradient) flow compensation (Gradient Moment Nulling) results in the RHS image.

Swallowing Motion
Cervical spine

S
CIV

A T

CV

Any patient motion during a scan can cause PE artefacts (A-P above). Left image - artefact generated by patient swallowing during data acquisition - increased signal intensity in the spinal cord. Eliminated by applying presaturation RF pulses to the anatomy that was generating the artefact. Sat band visible on RHS image.

Respiratory Artefact

Periodic respiratory motion ghosting above and below the body

Remove by breathold imaging (<18sec scan time). Increase the NSA (anatomy SNR improved relative to ghosts). NSA 4 to 6 ~ respiratory compensation.

Respiratory Gating/Triggering
Reduces respiratory artefact

Bellows pressure = electrical trigger

Inhalation

Exhalation

Bellows placed over abdomen. Sequence TR gated via patient breathing rate. Equivalent to TR ~ 4000ms, (breathing rate 15/min) so only able to generate PDW and T2W scans (long TR reduces T1 effect). Signal acquired when chest wall is in same position - minimises ghost images.

Respiratory Compensation

Reduces respiratory artefact

ROPE Respiratory Ordered Phase Encoding (also uses bellows).

Typical TR for a T1W sequence = 500 msec. Typical breathing rate = 15 breaths per min, i.e. 4000 msec period. Can therefore fit 8 TRs (8 PE steps) per breathing cycle. Outer k-lines (image boundary detail) acquired at peak inhalation. Central k-lines (signal, contrast) are acquired at peak exhalation.

K-space
+64 -64

Inhalation

Exhalation

Respiratory Gating or ROPE ?

Gating: + simple technique Gating: effective TR very long (cannot do T1W) ROPE: + shorter scan times ROPE: residual ghosts if patient breathes deeply

Navigator Echoes

Two slice selective directions and FE in the third direction (of motion). Small column of tissue excited across the diaphragm. Spin echo sequence acquires series 1D images of the diaphragm boundary over time. Stack images side-by-side - intensity difference between diaphragm and lung indicates respiratory motion. Navigator echo is interleaved within main scan sequence. Data for main image can then be adjusted for respiratory motion by using data acquired during specific range of diaphragm motion.

2. Geometrical Artefacts

Phase wrap

Partial volume

Cross talk

Magic Angle artefact

Phase Wrap - Aliasing

Regions outside FOV still produce a signal if in proximity to receiver coil. Anatomy outside FOV is mapped inside FOV. Corrected by - larger FOV or apply presat pulses to undesired tissue. No Phase Wrap double the FOV; but because PE steps is doubled need to half number of averages to keep scan time constant. Aliasing in FE direction can occur, but eliminated by filters (no time waste).

+200o = -160o 180o

-180o -160o

+180o EQUIVALENT +200o

Partial Volume Effect

Partial volume occurs if slice thickness > thickness of tissue of interest If small structure is entirely contained within the slice thickness along with other tissue of differing signal intensities then the resulting signal displayed on the image is a combination of these two intensities. This reduces contrast of the small structure. If the slice is the same thickness or thinner than the small structure, only that structures signal intensity is displayed on the image. Typically would use 3mm slices for cranial nerves and 5-10mm slices for liver.

VII (Facial) and VIII (Acoustic) cranial nerves

Cross Talk

Perfect RF pulse is a sinc function (FT = top hat) Real RF pulse is a truncated sinc (FT = top hat with rounded edges) Inter-slice cross talk could cause increased T1 weighting and reduced SNR.

How Does Cross Talk Occur?

TE = 20 TR = 600
90o 180o

SLICE 1

PE2

SLICE 2
90o 180o

90o 180o

PE2

SLICE N

PE2

Typical TR for T1W scan = 600ms, typical TE = 20ms. Theoretically possible to acquire 30 slices within the TR. Cross talk region between slices 1 and 2 experiences RF excitation from slice 1, then slice 2. Effective TR is 20ms giving loss of signal due to lack of T1 recovery. Solution - interleave slices. A 3D sequence avoids the problem altogether contiguous slices.
10-20% interslice gap

Magic Angle Artefact (54.7o)

Collagen fibril orientation w.r.t. B0 field. T2 lengthening at Magic Angle. Result is that the T2W image becomes hyperintense at the magic angle. Magic Angle is solution to: 3cos2-1=0 (from dipolar Hamiltonian mathematical theory) Magic angle imaging of the median nerve (brain) which has a high collagen content.

Median Nerve in brain

At Magic Angle