Operator-guided Navigator Gating for Real-Time Interactive Coronary Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance

Background Real-time interactive (RTI) MRI parameter manipulation during the scan [1] may potentially address challenges imposed by respiratory motion during a free-breathing cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) acquisition. In this study, we propose an operator-guided processing that allows manipulation of navigator gating parameters in real-time. This approach was evaluated in healthy volunteers, where coronary CMR (CCMR) with and without RTI manipulation was examined to assess acquisition failure rates, scan time reduction, and vessel sharpness. Methods The proposed RTI framework employs a custom communication protocol between the scanner host and the waveform generation hardware that allows non-time-critical operator tasks (ie. made changes are reflected in the next collected heart beat without overtasking the scan runtime). The custom front-end (Figure 1a) shows the operator-interactive navigator control that allows manipulation of the diaphragm navigator gating window in real-time (Figure 1b). This RTI approach was incorporated into a CCMR sequence with view/profile order compatible with