Fully-Refocused Multi-Slice Ultrafast 3D MRI by Spatiotemporal Encoding

Rita Schmidt¹, Lucio Frydman¹

Recent studies based on spatiotemporal encoding (SPEN) principles showed that many of the echo planar imaging (EPI - the leading ultrafast experiment) challenges can be alleviated, particularly if implemented in a full-refocusing mode. The present work extends this imaging modality by introducing a variety of new 3D multi-slice schemes, employing either inversion or for lower Specific Absorption Rate stimulated echo pulses, and are timed to fulfill the demands of full-refocusing. The work confirmed the advantages of these new imaging modalities with in vivo animal and human scans performed at 3T and 7T, demonstrating higher robustness of the SPEN comparing EPI.