Purpose
Continuously moving table (CMT) MRI is a high throughput technique that has multiple applications in whole‐body imaging. In this work, CMT MRI based on golden angle (GA, 111.246° azimuthal step) radial sampling is developed at 3 Tesla (T), with the goal of increased flexibility in image reconstruction using arbitrary profile groupings.
Theory and Methods
CMT MRI with GA and linear angle (LA) schemes were developed for whole‐body imaging at 3T with a table speed of 20 mm/s. Imaging was performed in phantoms and a human volunteer with extended z fields of view of up to 1.8 meters. Four separate LA and a single GA scan were performed to enable slice reconstructions at four different thicknesses.
Results
GA CMT MRI produced high image quality in phantoms and humans and allowed complete flexibility in reconstruction of slices with arbitrary slice thickness and position from a single data set. LA CMT MRI was constrained by predetermined parameters, required multiple scans and suffered from stair step artifacts that were not present in GA images.
Conclusion
GA sampling provides a robust flexible approach to CMT whole‐body MRI with the ability to reconstruct slices at arbitrary positions and thicknesses from a single scan. Magn Reson Med 74:1690–1697, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.