Abstract #3403

Diffusion-Weighted Split-Echo RARE Imaging Free Of Geometric Distortion for Renal MRI at Ultrahigh Fields

Joao Periquito¹, Katharina Paul¹, Till Huelnhagen¹, Yiyi Ji¹, Min-Chi Ku¹, Kathleen Cantow², Erdmann Seeliger², Bert Flemming², Dirk Grosenick³, Andreas Pohlmann¹, and Thoralf Niendorf^1,4

¹Berlin Ultrahigh Field Facility (B.U.F.F.), Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany, ²Institut für Vegetative Physiologie, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany, ³Physikalisch-Tecnische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Berlin, Germany, ⁴Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC), a joint cooperation between the Charité Medical Faculty and the Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association, Berlin, Germany

T₂^* mapping does not fully represent renal tissue oxygenation. Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) can provide information about confounding factors, which can be used to correct T₂^*. The most widely used DWI technique SE-EPI is sensitive to magnetic field inhomogeneities and hence prone to geometric distortions. In this work we propose a diffusion-weighted Rapid Acquisition Refocusing Enhancement (RARE) variant for DWI of the rat kidney free of geometric distortions. Phantom experiments validated the diffusion weighting implementation in the common RARE sequence. Ex-vivo and in-vivo experiments using diffusion-weighted RARE showed no geometric distortions at 9.4 Tesla.

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