Reconstruction of Multi-Echo High-Resolution T2* and Phase Imaging Data Acquired at 3 Tesla Using a 32 Channel Head Coil

Claudiu Schirda¹, Anthony Vu², Robert Zivadinov¹

Susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) has been shown to be a useful technique for visualization of small veins, of iron deposits and micro bleeds in vivo brain, among other applications. Because the susceptibility effects present in the image are dependent on the echo time, a multi-echo acquisition like SWAN, even when using just the magnitude information, will be able to provide complimentary information. Using the free (no extra acquisition time) information that is found in the phase image, thus SWAN with phase reconstruction, enables one to obtain a wealth of information. A number of challenges are presented when using a 32 channel coil for data acquisition and we present solutions to these challenges.