From Artifact to Merit: Cardiac Gated MRI at 7T & 3T using Magneto-Hydrodynamic Effects for Synchronization

Abstract

ECG is corrupted by magneto-hydrodynamic effects at higher magnetic field strength. Artifacts in the ECG trace and severe T-wave elevation might be mis-interpreted as R-waves. MHD being inherently sensitive to blood flow and blood velocity provides an alternative approach for cardiac gating, even in peripheral target areas far away from the commonly used upper torso positions of ECG electrodes. This feature would be very beneficial to address traveling time induced motion artifacts and trigger latency related issues raised by ECG-gated peripheral MR angiography. For all those reasons, this work proposes the use of MHD-trigger for cardiac gated MR