SPatiotemporal ENcoding (SPEN) at ultra-high fields: Applications to high resolution (<100 µm isotropic) in vivo mouse brain DTI

SPEN can be a valuable alternative to Spin Echo EPI, especially at very high fields where sensitivity is maximized but magnetic field susceptibility artifacts become important. This work presents a new Paravision® 6 software package capable of acquiring and processing SPEN data, incorporating single/multishot acquisitions, motion correction, image zooming and multiple contrast possibilities such as CEST, diffusion or multi-echo acquisition. The power of this method is exemplified with in vivo 2D and 3D diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies on whole and zoomed mouse brain regions, acquired at 15.2T utilizing a cryoprobe and reaching isotropic resolution of 75 µm.