MRI 広視野撮像におけるview angle tilting(VAT)による画像歪みの低減効果

抄録

With shortening of the gantry of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems, large field-of-view (FOV) imaging has become difficult because static magnetic field nonuniformity and gradient magnetic field nonlinearity exacerbate geometric distortion of MR images. However, results of earlier studies have demonstrated that view angle tilting (VAT) can reduce severe image distortion attributable to local susceptibility effects of metals. Although VAT is usually applied to local magnetic field nonuniformity, in principle VAT is expected to correct distortion also for peripheral images in large-FOV MRI. Results from this phantom experiment using VAT with large-FOV verified the effectiveness of distortion correction. The experiment using VAT showed reduction of maximum distortion from 23.6 to −1.9 mm. Furthermore, results of a volunteer study confirmed the distortion correction capability of VAT: it reduced distortion and improved visibility of the anatomical structure. In conclusion, experimentally obtained results underscore VAT effectiveness for improving distortion in large-FOV MRI.