Improved real-time tagged MRI using REALTAG.

OBJECTIVES:To evaluate a novel method for real-time tagged MRI with increased tag persistence using phase sensitive tagging (REALTAG), demonstrated for speech imaging. METHODS:Tagging is applied as a brief interruption to a continuous real-time spiral acquisition. REALTAG is implemented using a total tagging flip angle of 180° and a novel frame-by-frame phase sensitive reconstruction to remove smooth background phase while preserving the sign of the tag lines. Tag contrast-to-noise ratio of REALTAG and conventional tagging (total flip angle of 90°) is simulated and evaluated in vivo. The ability to extend tag persistence is tested during the production of vowel-to-vowel transitions by American English speakers. RESULTS:REALTAG resulted in a doubling of contrast-to-noise ratio at each time point and increased tag persistence by more than 1.9-fold. The tag persistence was 1150 ms with contrast-to-noise ratio >6 at 1.5T, providing 2 mm in-plane resolution, 179 frames/s, with 72.6 ms temporal window width, and phase sensitive reconstruction. The new imaging window is able to capture internal tongue deformation over word-to-word transitions in natural speech production. CONCLUSION:Tag persistence is substantially increased in intermittently tagged real-time MRI by using the improved REALTAG method. This makes it possible to capture longer motion patterns in the tongue, such as cross-word vowel-to-vowel transitions, and provides a powerful new window to study tongue biomechanics.