Correction of misaligned slices in multi-slice MR cardiac examinations by using slice-to-volume registration

One of the main challenges with magnetic resonance (MR) cardiac image acquisition is to account for cardiac motion due to respiration. A popular technique to reduce respiratory motion is to perform a multi-slice acquisition in which a patient holds their breath multiple times during the scan. This paper explores the feasibility of using rigid slice-to-volume registration to correct for misalignments of slice stacks in such images due to differing breath-hold positions. The experimental results indicate that slice-to-volume registration is sufficiently accurate and robust to compensate for the typical misalignments expected. We show that correction of misalignments in such data results in anatomically more correct images, as well as improved left ventricular volume measurements. It also shows that by correcting for misalignments in short axis (SA) images, one can improve the interstudy reproducibility and hence reduce the number of samples needed for cardiac MR studies to show the same statistical significance