Improved MR imaging of the brain by using compensating gradients to suppress motion-induced artifacts

Sixty patients were examined with and without extra gradient pulses, which compensate for motion-induced phase errors, in order to determine the effect those gradients had in suppressing the motion artifacts frequently present in the brainstem, temporal lobes, and basal ganglionic regions on routine T2-weighted brain MR imaging. Two comparative studies were performed: (1) in 50 patients the motion-artifact suppression technique (MAST) was compared with a single-echo MR examination, and (2) in 10 patients the MAST technique was compared with the second echo of a symmetric dual-echo sequence. In the first study 39 patients were examined at 1.5 T and 11 patients were examined at 0.5 T with the same pulse sequences. We found that MAST resulted in a significant improvement of image quality in 24 of 39 patients on the high-field-strength system and in two of 11 patients on the mid-field strength system. In the second study, we found that in four of the 10 patients, MAST resulted in a suppression of artifacts greater than that achieved by even-echo rephasing alone. With MAST, artifacts were eliminated that not only obscured normal structures but that could have left doubt about the presence of a true signal abnormality. There was, however, marked suppression of the CSF flow-void phenomenon and increased signal from flowing blood, particularly in the cortical veins and dural sinuses. Because of this, the use of additional pulse sequences in which these motion-compensating gradients were not used was necessary under certain clinical circumstances. We conclude that, with these motion-compensating gradients, artifacts are reduced or eliminated, and a marked improvement in image quality can be obtained without the need for cardiac gating.