Adaptive Averaging Applied to Dynamic Imaging of the Soft Palate

Andrew David Scott¹, Malcolm Birch¹, Marc Eric Miquel¹

Real-time MR imaging of the soft-palate is challenging and gated techniques rely on sufficient similarity between repetitions of a speech task. The adaptive averaging technique selectively averages images acquired without gating, based on a similarity measure. We apply this technique to low SNR high frame-rate soft-palate imaging. Real-time mid-sagittal images were acquired while a subject repeatedly counted from 1-5 without gating or timing requirements. Adaptive averaging was retrospectively performed and improved image quality was demonstrated. The technique is also able to improve the quality of sufficiently long real-time acquisitions without repetition, due to the limited number of possible soft-palate configurations.