Purpose: This work describes a new method called amplified MRI (aMRI), which uses Eulerian video magnification to amplify the subtle spatial variations in cardiac-gated brain MRI scans and enables better visualization of brain motion.
Methods: The aMRI method takes retrospective cardiac-gated cine MRI data as input, applies a spatial decomposition, followed by temporal filtering and frequency-selective amplification of the MRI cardiac-gated frames before synthesizing a motion-amplified cine data set.
Results: This approach reveals deformations of the brain parenchyma and displacements of arteries due to cardiac pulsatility, especially in the brainstem, cerebellum, and spinal cord.
Conclusion: aMRI has the potential for widespread neuro- and non-neuro clinical use because it can amplify and characterize small, often barely perceptible motion and can visualize the biomechanical response of tissues using the heartbeat as an endogenous mechanical driver. Magn Reson Med 75:2245-2254, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Keywords: Eulerian Video Magnification (EVM); amplified Magnetic Resonance Imaging (aMRI); balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP); brain motion; brain pulsation; cardiac-gated.
© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.