Girish Srinivasan1,2, Novena Rangwala1,2,
Xiaohong Joe Zhou1,3
1Center for MR Research,
University of Illinois Medical Center, Chicago, IL, United States; 2Department
of Bioengineering, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, United
States; 3Departments of Bioengineering, Radiology, Neurosurgery,
University of Illinois Medical Center, Chicago, IL, United States
Severe image distortion is often seen in diffusion-weighted single-shot EPI (SS-EPI) due to strong concomitant gradient and other off-resonance effects. A GRASE-based PROPELLER sequence, Steer-PROP, is developed to reduce the image distortion. Diffusion images were obtained from non-axial planes on the human brain using the Steer-PROP sequence, and showed substantially reduced distortion when compared with SS-EPI. The scan time of Steer-PROP was ~4-5 times longer than that of SS-EPI, but 3-5 times faster than conventional PROPELLER. With further improvement in time efficiency, Steer-PROP can be a strong contender for diffusion imaging in non-axial planes where SS-EPI is problematic.
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