Analysis of temperature dependence of background phase errors in phase-contrast cardiovascular magnetic resonance

BACKGROUND: The accuracy of phase-contrast cardiovascular magnetic resonance (PC-CMR) can be compromised by background phase errors. It is the objective of the present work to provide an analysis of the temperature dependence of background phase errors in PC-CMR by means of gradient mount temperature sensing and magnetic field monitoring. METHODS: Background phase errors were measured for various temperatures of the gradient mount using magnetic field monitoring and validated in a static phantom. The effect of thermal changes during k-space acquisition was simulated and confirmed with measurements in a stationary phantom. RESULTS: The temperature of the gradient mount was found to increase by 20–30 K during PC-CMR measurements of 6–12 min duration. Associated changes in background phase errors of up to 11% or 0.35 radian were measured at 10 cm from the magnet’s iso-center as a result of first order offsets. Zeroth order phase errors exhibited little thermal dependence. CONCLUSIONS: It is concluded that changes in gradient mount temperature significantly modify background phase errors during PC-CMR with high gradient duty cycle. Since temperature increases significantly during the first minutes of scanning the results presented are also of relevance for single-slice or multi-slice PC-CMR scans. The findings prompt for further studies to investigate advanced correction methods taking into account gradient temperature and/or the use of concurrent field-monitoring to map gradient-induced fields throughout the scan.