Predicting dynamic, motion‐related changes in B0 field in the brain at a 7T MRI using a subject‐specific fine‐trained U‐net

• Published in: Magnetic resonance in medicine 2024-05, Vol.91 (5), p.2044-2056
• Main Authors: Motyka, Stanislav, Weiser, Paul, Bachrata, Beata, Hingerl, Lukas, Strasser, Bernhard, Hangel, Gilbert, Niess, Eva, Niess, Fabian, Zaitsev, Maxim, Robinson, Simon Daniel, Langs, Georg, Trattnig, Siegfried, Bogner, Wolfgang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: artificial neural network; B0 inhomogeneities; Brain; Brain mapping; Deep learning; Head; Homogeneity; Magnetic fields; Magnetic resonance imaging; Medical imaging; motion correction; patient movement; Spatial discrimination; Spatial resolution; U‐net
• ISSN: 0740-3194; 1522-2594
• DOI: 10.1002/mrm.29980

Purpose Subject movement during the MR examination is inevitable and causes not only image artifacts but also deteriorates the homogeneity of the main magnetic field (B0), which is a prerequisite for high quality data. Thus, characterization of changes to B0, for example induced by patient movement, is important for MR applications that are prone to B0 inhomogeneities. Methods We propose a deep learning based method to predict such changes within the brain from the change of the head position to facilitate retrospective or even real‐time correction. A 3D U‐net was trained on in vivo gradient‐echo brain 7T MRI data. The input consisted of B0 maps and anatomical images at an initial position, and anatomical images at a different head position (obtained by applying a rigid‐body transformation on the initial anatomical image). The output consisted of B0 maps at the new head positions. We further fine‐trained the network weights to each subject by measuring a limited number of head positions of the given subject, and trained the U‐net with these data. Results Our approach was compared to established dynamic B0 field mapping via interleaved navigators, which suffer from limited spatial resolution and the need for undesirable sequence modifications. Qualitative and quantitative comparison showed similar performance between an interleaved navigator‐equivalent method and proposed method. Conclusion It is feasible to predict B0 maps from rigid subject movement and, when combined with external tracking hardware, this information could be used to improve the quality of MR acquisitions without the use of navigators.