Abstract #1085

Recovery of Signal Using Spiral-In K-Space Trajectories: Phase Coherence or Intensity Displacement?

Kimberly Brewer^1,2, James Rioux^1,2, Martyn Klassen³, Chris Bowen^1,4, Steven Beyea^1,4

¹Institute for Biodiagnostics (Atlantic), National Research Council of Canada, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; ²Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; ³Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; ⁴Physics and Atmospheric Science, Radiology and Biomedical Engineering, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Spiral pulse sequences are commonly used in fMRI, and spiral-in is known to be considerably better than spiral-out at signal recovery in regions with strong susceptibility field gradients. Previously proposed theories in the literature do not address the probability of signal displacement or fully explain all of the differences in signal recovery between spiral-out and spiral-in. In the current work we demonstrate that the difference in image intensity is not due to differences in signal displacement between spiral-in and spiral-out, but rather the increased phase coherence of the displaced pixels when using spiral-in.