Correction for Eddy Current-Induced Echo-Shifting Effect in Partial-Fourier Diffusion Tensor Imaging

Abstract EN

In most diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies, images are acquired with either a partial-Fourier or a parallel partial-Fourier echo-planar imaging (EPI) sequence, in order to shorten the echo time and increase the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).

However, eddy currents induced by the diffusion-sensitizing gradients can often lead to a shift of the echo in k-space, resulting in three distinct types of artifacts in partial-Fourier DTI.

Here, we present an improved DTI acquisition and reconstruction scheme, capable of generating high-quality and high-SNR DTI data without eddy current-induced artifacts.

This new scheme consists of three components, respectively, addressing the three distinct types of artifacts.

First, a k-space energy-anchored DTI sequence is designed to recover eddy current-induced signal loss (i.e., Type 1 artifact).

Second, a multischeme partial-Fourier reconstruction is used to eliminate artificial signal elevation (i.e., Type 2 artifact) associated with the conventional partial-Fourier reconstruction.

Third, a signal intensity correction is applied to remove artificial signal modulations due to eddy current-induced erroneous T2*-weighting (i.e., Type 3 artifact).

These systematic improvements will greatly increase the consistency and accuracy of DTI measurements, expanding the utility of DTI in translational applications where quantitative robustness is much needed.