Abstract #4291

Advantage of simultaneous multi-slice readout-segmented echo-planar imaging on diffusion MRI measurements of the human optic nerve

Hiromasa Takemura^1,2, Wei Liu³, Hideto Kuribayashi⁴, and Ikuhiro Kida^1,2

¹Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Suita-shi, Japan, ²Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, Suita-shi, Japan, ³Siemens Shenzhen Magnetic Resonance Ltd, Shenzhen, China, ⁴Siemens Healthcare K.K., Tokyo, Japan

Diffusion MRI measurements of the human optic nerve remain challenging due to susceptibility-induced artifacts, despite their importance in neuro-ophthalmology research. Here, we demonstrate that simultaneous multi-slice (SMS) readout-segmented echo-planar imaging (rsEPI) acquisition has advantages in measuring the human optic nerve over conventional SMS single-shot EPI (ssEPI) with respect to image quality. This result was confirmed with statistical comparisons demonstrating higher fractional anisotropy along the optic nerve in SMS rsEPI data compared with that in SMS ssEPI data. Taken together, this study demonstrates the utility of SMS rsEPI for diffusion MRI measurements of tissue properties of the optic nerve.

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