Abstract #2576

Characterization and Correction of Eddy-Current Artifacts in Unipolar and Bipolar Diffusion Sequences Using a Field-Monitoring Approach: Application to Renal Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI)

Rachel Wai-chung Chan¹, Sebastian Kozerke²,³, Daniel Giese³, Jack Harmer³, Christian T. Stoeck², Constantin von Deuster²,³, Andrew Peter Aitken³, David Atkinson¹

¹Centre for Medical Imaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom; ²Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; ³Division of Imaging Sciences, King's College London, London, United Kingdom

In diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), time-varying eddy-currents over long readout durations cause images from different directions to be misregistered. Using a field camera with 16 NMR probes, higher-order spatial phase offsets from eddy-currents were measured and used for correction of misregistration artifacts in renal DTI. The unipolar Stejskal-Tanner and velocity-compensated bipolar sequences were compared. Phantom experiments reveal that higher-order correction is beneficial for the unipolar sequence. In an in vivo experiment where both kidneys in a healthy volunteer were simultaneously imaged, the fractional anisotropy (FA) maps showed improved image quality with eddy-current correction.