Reconstruction of undersampled non-Cartesian data sets using pseudo-Cartesian GRAPPA in conjunction with GROG.

Most k-space-based parallel imaging reconstruction techniques, such as Generalized Autocalibrating Partially Parallel Acquisitions (GRAPPA), necessitate the acquisition of regularly sampled Cartesian k-space data to reconstruct a nonaliased image efficiently. However, non-Cartesian sampling schemes offer some inherent advantages to the user due to their better coverage of the center of k-space and faster acquisition times. On the other hand, these sampling schemes have the disadvantage that the points acquired generally do not lie on a grid and have complex k-space sampling patterns. Thus, the extension of Cartesian GRAPPA to non-Cartesian sequences is nontrivial. This study introduces a simple, novel method for performing Cartesian GRAPPA reconstructions on undersampled non-Cartesian k-space data gridded using GROG (GRAPPA Operator Gridding) to arrive at a nonaliased image. Because the undersampled non-Cartesian data cannot be reconstructed using a single GRAPPA kernel, several Cartesian patterns are selected for the reconstruction. This flexibility in terms of both the appearance and number of patterns allows this pseudo-Cartesian GRAPPA to be used with undersampled data sets acquired with any non-Cartesian trajectory. The successful implementation of the reconstruction algorithm using several different trajectories, including radial, rosette, spiral, one-dimensional non-Cartesian, and zig-zag trajectories, is demonstrated. (c) 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.