Adaptive scan strategies for fetal MRI imaging using slice to volume techniques

In this paper several novel methods to account for fetal movements during fetal Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fetal MRI) are explored. We show how slice-to-volume reconstruction methods can be used to account for motion adaptively during the scan. Three candidate methods are tested for their feasibility and integrated into a computer simulation of fetal MRI. The first alters the main orientation of the stacks used for reconstruction, the second stops if too much motion occurs during slice acquisition and the third steers the orientation of each slice individually. Reconstruction informed adaptive scanning can provide a peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) improvement of up to 2 dB after only two stacks of scanned slices and is more efficient with respect to the uncertainty of the final reconstruction.