Imaging freely moving subjects using continuous interleaved orthogonal magnetic resonance imaging

Magnetic resonance imaging has shown increasing clinical utility for the diagnosis of abnormalities in fetal development. MRI is not yet as effective for fetal imaging as ultrasound because of the difficulty of imaging freely moving subjects. We describe a design approach to overcome this difficulty. By interleaving orthogonal images of a subject, it is possible to rapidly and interactively localize the scan plane in a moving subject and confirm image plane orientation relative to the subject. We derive the equations necessary to optimize the tip angles for the acquisition of the orthogonal images so as to minimize artifact in the main image despite the long T1 of a fluid environment (e.g., amniotic fluid). To fully utilize the orthogonal images for rapid localization, it is critical to minimize the delay between acquisition and display, and to avoid segmented reconstruction techniques that are commonly used in high frame rate imaging. We demonstrate that this approach can be used to perform interactive scan plane localization on a moving subject and can obtain high temporal resolution images while confirming the image plane orientation relative to the subject.