Respiratory effects on phase contrast imaging of the jugular vein

An analysis of the effect of respiratory function on MR flow measures of the internal jugular vein (IJV) is presented. A novel 2D radial acquisition and reconstruction method allows for retrospective gating to both the cardiac and respiratory cycle. In-vivo scans of human volunteers verify the efficacy of the algorithm, showing increased IJV flow during inspiration and decreased flow during expiration for each cardiac time frame.