Respiratory compensation reduces motion artifacts due to breathing. The approach is to reassign the echoes that are sensitive to respiratory motion in the central region of k-space. The outer lines of phase encoding normally contain the echoes where the motion from expiration is the greatest. The central portion of k-space will have encoded the echoes where inspiration and expiration are minimal. By a bellows device fixed to the abdomen, monitoring of the diaphragm excursion is possible. Respiratory compensation does not increase scan time with most systems.
An advantage of very fast sequences is the possibility of breath holding during the acquisition to eliminate motion artifacts. Breath hold is commonly used on most abdominal studies where images are acquired using gradient echo-based sequences during a brief inspiratory period (20-30 seconds). To enhance the breath holding endurance of the patient, connecting the patient to oxygen at a 1-liter flow rate via a nasal cannula has been shown to be helpful.
Also called PEAR, Respiratory Trigger, Respiratory Gating, PRIZE, FREEZE, Phase Reordering.

See also Phase Encoding Artifact Reduction, Respiratory Ordered Phase Encoding.