Motion correction in magnetic resonance imaging of the pelvis

In MRI we take pictures of the inside of the body, and the scans can last up to one hour. During this time, the bladder fills up and moves the internal organs around, especially the womb (which often sits on top of the bladder), or tumours in the cervix (next to the bladder). This means that the womb or tumour is in a different place at the end of the scan from the beginning, so if we draw around the womb in the first set of pictures we can’t use the same outline for all the other pictures. Drawing new outlines for every picture is very time consuming. This project aims to make a computer program that can find the womb or tumour in every picture and line the images up so that any movement is taken away. Removing motion from the images allows us to diagnose disease more accurately, or to see how well a treatment works, for example. To do this, we will use pictures already taken in three MRI studies to test the program. It is very important that the program runs quickly and easily, and that we can prove that the movement has been removed properly.