Interactive reduced FOV imaging for projection reconstruction and spiral acquisition

MR fluoroscopy is likely to gain increasing importance for the visualizatio n of dynamic processes such as cardiac function and for the guidance of int erventional procedures. In many applications the dynamic processes are rest ricted to a part of the object under study making reduced field of view (rF OV) imaging desirable. The restriction to a smaller FOV can either be used to increase the spatial or the temporal resolution. In projection reconstru ction (PR) and spiral imaging severe backfolding artifacts occur if a rFOV is used. In this paper efficient suppression schemes are proposed for PR- a nd spiral imaging to avoid backfolding artifacts. Evaluation of the propose d schemes was done on an interactive real-time MR-scanner. Cardiac function studies clearly showed the potential of this technique for PR- and spiral imaging. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.