Magnetic resonance imaging with motion correction suing pre-pulses and navigators

Abstract

The present invention provides a method for magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of a region of interest () of a subject of interest () under application of a scanning sequence () comprising at least one pre-pulse () and multiple readouts (), whereby the multiple readouts () are performed after the at least one pre-pulse () with different configurations causing different image contrasts, comprising the steps of performing a preparation phase comprising applying at least one scanning sequence () to provide a set of reference readouts () using the different configurations, and generating a set of navigator images () with one navigator image () of the region of interest () for each configuration of the reference readouts (), performing an examination phase comprising applying at least one scanning sequence (), whereby at least one image () of the region of interest () is generated for each scanning sequence (), determining motion of the subject of interest () by comparing at least one image () of the scanning sequence of the examination phase to the navigator image () having the same configuration as the compared image (), performing motion correction of the at least one image () based on the determined motion of the subject of interest () of the at least one image (), and providing an MR scan () of the region of interest () of the subject of interest () based on the images () after performing motion correction. The invention also provides a MR imaging system () adapted to perform the above method and a software package for upgrading a MR imaging system (), whereby the software package contains instructions for controlling the MR imaging system () according to the above method.