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4D MRI – RT Respiratory Self-GatingPatient motion management for MR in RT

Respiration-induced motion of the abdomen and thorax can hinder the accurate determination of treatment margins for target tumors, as needed for radiotherapy planning. Furthermore, techniques using patient breath holds and abdominal compression can have consequences for patient comfort and treatment plan reproducibility.

4D MR – Self-Gated image: Target delineation and motion can be seen and understood.
Image courtesy: The University Hospital of Erlangen, Germany.

In order to overcome these challenges, Siemens Healthineers introduces 4D MRI – RT Respiratory Self-Gating, a technique that captures organ motion in the abdomen and thorax under free-breathing with excellent soft tissue contrast and automatic respiratory phase sorting during the entire acquisition time, all without the need for external respiratory devices or surrogates.

Features & Benefits

4D MRI – RT Respiratory Self-Gating is based on the StarVIBE acquisition technique which is a 3D radial “Stack of Stars” acquisition, using 3D volume encoding. This technique allows for self-gating of the respiratory cycle, as the radial sampling allows a high-frequency detection of the center of k-space. Images are binned, or sorted, to different respiratory phases to allow for precise tumor delineation at each phase. This can provide better visualization in the abdomen and thorax which are normally subject to motion artifacts.

Benefits

  • Free-breathing, non-contrast, 3D radial acquisition technique to allow for precise target delineation in the abdomen and thorax at each phase of the respiratory cycle
  • Images are automatically binned, or sorted, into separate discrete respiratory phases to support RT treatment planning of moving targets without the need for external respiratory devices or surrogates
     

Clinical Use

Workflow for ITV contouring, using syngo.via RT Image Suite

General Requirements

System

  • MAGNETOM Vida
  • MAGNETOM Solafit
  • MAGNETOM Vidafit
  • MAGNETOM Sola

Minimum Software Version

syngo MR XA11B

Other

Please Note: Additional technical pre-requisites may apply. Upon receiving your request, your local Siemens representative will clarify whether your system meets the requirements.

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Specific clinical images were acquired on the 4D MRI WIP package.