Yoshitaka Bito1, Koji Hirata1,
Toshihiko Ebisu2, Yuko Kawai3, Yosuke Otake1,
Satoshi Hirata1, Toru Shirai1, Yoshihisa Soutome1,
Hisaaki Ochi1, Masahiro Umeda3, Toshihiro Higuchi4,
Chuzo Tanaka4
1Central Research Laboratory, Hitachi,
Ltd., Kokubunji-shi, Tokyo, Japan; 2Neurosurgery, Nantan General
Hospital, Nantan-shi, Kyoto, Japan; 3Medical Informatics, Meiji
University of Integrative Medicine, Nantan-shi, Kyoto, Japan; 4Neurosurgery,
Meiji University of Integrative Medicine, Nantan-shi, Kyoto, Japan
Diffusion-weighted
echo-planar spectroscopic imaging (DW-EPSI), using bipolar diffusion
gradients, has been developed to reduce motion artifacts. Signal loss in
signal accumulation, which is detrimental in diffusion-weighted spectroscopic
measurements, is estimated by numerical analysis using bipolar diffusion
gradients. Reduction of motion artifacts is demonstrated by applying DW-EPSI,
using bipolar diffusion gradients, to a phantom and a rat brain in vivo. The
results suggest that the effectiveness and limitations of this technique in
reduction of motion artifacts and numerical analysis is helpful in
investigating errors due to motion.