Free-Breathing Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI at 3.0 T using a 3D-Radial-Gradient Echo Sequence with K-Space-Weighted Image Contrast (KWIC): Preliminary Study

Kyung Won Kim¹, Jeong Min Lee¹, Yong Sik Jeon¹, Joon Koo Han¹, Byung Ihn Choi¹

Dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE)-MRI has emerged as a important method for evaluating tumor blood flow and treatment response to antivascular agents. However, it is difficult to acquire high-qualited DCE-MRI of abdomen or thorax due to the respiratory motion. To overcome the respiratory motion artifact, DCE-MRI using a 3D-radial-gradient echo sequence with k-space weighted radial view-sharing scheme (KWIC) was proposed. We evaluated the feasibility of free-breathing dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) of the abdomen and thorax at 3.0 T using radial k-space sampling and KWIC reconstruction. Our results showed that it can overcome respiratory motion while providing high spatial and temporal resolution.