Abstract #2374

Combination of Multiplexed EPI with EPIK (EPI with Keyhole) for Reduced Image Distortions at 3T

Seong Dae Yun¹, Nadim Jon Shah¹,²

¹Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine - 4, Forschungszentrum Jlich, Jlich, Germany; ²JARA - Faculty of Medicine, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

The relatively high imaging speed of EPI has led to its widespread use in dynamic MRI studies. For even faster acquisition of multiple slices using EPI, the M-EPI (Multiplexed EPI) method has been recently presented (Feinberg et al.). However, the use of multiple RF pulses for multiple-slice excitation causes an increase of readout duration, which in turn increases image distortions. To overcome this problem, in this work M-EPI has been combined with EPIK (EPI with Keyhole) which has been proven to be effective in reducing the EPI image distortions. Experiments were performed at 3T and the method was validated with a phantom as well as on human brain data.