Divergence-free reconstruction for accelerated 3D phase-contrast flow measurements

In this work an approach is described to efficiently reduce inaccuracies of flow data acquired with reduced data acquisition methods based on the physical prior knowledge of zero divergence in 3D velocity vector fields. The divergence-free condition is implemented using a synergistic combination of normalized convolution and divergence-free radial basis functions. The efficacy of the method is demonstrated for aortic flow measurements obtained from undersampled data. Background Cine 3D phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (PC-MRI) has emerged as a valuable tool for assessing blood flow patterns [Markl, JCMR’11]. The relatively long acquisition times, however, limit its application in a clinical setting. Over the last years several undersampling techniques such as TSENSE, GRAPPA, PEAK-GRAPPA, k-t SENSE, k-t PCA and Compressed Sensing have been introduced which allow for up to 6-fold acceleration in typical applications [Kozerke,