PROPELLER=EPI with parallel imaging using a circularly symmetric phased-array RF coil at 3.0 T: Application to high-resolution diffusion tensor imaging
Journal
Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
Journal Volume
56
Journal Issue
6
Pages
1352-1358
Date Issued
2006
Author(s)
Chuang, T.-C.
Huang, T.-Y.
Lin, F.-H.
Wang, F.-N.
Juan, C.-J.
Chung, H.-W.
Chen, G.-Y.
Kwong, K.K.
Abstract
A technique integrating multishot periodically rotated overlapping parallel lines with enhanced reconstruction (PROPELLER) and parallel imaging is presented for diffusion echo-planar imaging (EPI) at high spatial resolution. The method combines the advantages of parallel imaging to achieve accelerated sampling along the phase-encoding direction, and PROPELLER acquisition to further decrease the echo train length (ETL) in EPI. With an eight-element circularly symmetric RF coil, a parallel acceleration factor of 4 was applied such that, when combined with PROPELLER acquisition, a reduction of geometric distortions by a factor substantially greater than 4 was achieved. The resulting phantom and human brain images acquired with a 256 x 256 matrix and an ETL of only 16 were visually identical in shape to those acquired using the fast spin-echo (FSE) technique, even without field-map corrections. It is concluded that parallel PROPELLER-EPI is an effective technique that can substantially reduce susceptibility-induced geometric distortions at high field strength.
Type
journal article