Abstract #1034

Wuerfel J, Zipp F, Watanabe T, Michaelis T, Boretius S, Frahm J

Diffusion-weighted single-shot STEAM MRI takes full advantage of the increased longitudinal magnetization and prolonged T1 relaxation time at higher magnetic field strengths without suffering from geometric distortions and signal losses due to susceptibility artifacts. The signal gain can be successfully invested either in a corresponding reduction of measurement time or an increase of spatial resolution. Mouse brain studies at 7 T resulted in a pronounced improvement of fractional anisotropy and main diffusion direction maps in comparison to data obtained at 2.35 T.