External Dynamic InTerference Estimation and Removal (EDITER) for low field MRI

Purpose: Point-of-care MRI requires operation outside of a faraday shielded room normally used to block image-degrading electromagnetic Interference (EMI). To address this, we introduce the EDITER method, an external sensor based dynamic EMI estimation and removal method to retrospectively remove time-varying external interference sources. Theory and Methods: The method acquires data from multiple EMI detectors (tuned receive coils and electrodes placed on the body) simultaneous with the primary MR coil during image data acquisition. We dynamically calculate impulse response functions that map the data from the detectors to the artifacts in the kspace data, then remove the transformed detected EMI from the MR data. Performance of the EDITER algorithm was assessed in phantom and in vivo imaging experiments in an 80mT portable brain MRI in a controlled EMI environment and with an open 47.5mT MRI scanner in an uncontrolled EMI setting. Results: In the controlled setting, the effectiveness of the EDITER technique was demonstrated for specific types of introduced EMI sources with up to a 97% reduction of structured EMI and up to 76% reduction of broadband EMI. In the uncontrolled EMI experiments, we demonstrate EMI reductions of 37% with a single pickup coil and 89% with a single electrode and up to 99% with both. Conclusion: The EDITER technique is a flexible and robust method to improve image quality in portable MRI systems with minimal passive shielding. This could reduce the reliance of MRI on shielded rooms and allow for truly portable MRI with specialized compact POC scanners