Navigated abdominal T1-W MRI permits free-breathing image acquisition with less motion artifact

T1-weighted imaging in the pediatric abdomen suffers from respiratory motion artifacts. Though navigation has been employed commonly for coronary MRA and T2 imaging, navigation for T1-weighted imaging is less developed. Thus, a navigator pulse was incorporated into a fat-suppressed T1-weighted SPGR sequence such that steady-state contrast was not disrupted. 10 pediatric patients were recruited and scanned after gadolinium administration three times in immediate succession: breath-hold with no navigation, free-breathing with navigation, and free-breathing without navigation. Motion artifacts were scored for each sequence by two radiologists, showing less motion artifacts with navigation compared to free-breathing and greater motion artifacts than with breath-holding. This work demonstrates the feasibility and potential utility of navigation for pediatric abdominal T1-weighted imaging.