Echo-Planar Diffusion-Tensor Imaging of Inner Field-Of-Views in the Human Brain and Spinal Cord Using 2D-Selective RF Excitations

Jrgen Finsterbusch^1,2

Echo-planar imaging suffers from geometric distortions caused by magnetic field inhomogeneities in particular at high static magnetic fields. Because these artifacts depend on the field-of-view in the phase-encoding direction, several techniques to acquire inner field-of-views without aliasing have been presented, one of them involves 2D-selective RF excitations. In this work, the feasibility of this approach for diffusion-tensor imaging of inner field-of-views in the human brain and cervical spinal cord at in-plane resolution of up to 0.5x0.5 mm2 is demonstrated. Major fibres in the cerebellum can be identified as well as the reduced anisotropy of gray matter in the spinal cord.