Influence of SENSE on image properties in high‐resolution single‐shot echo‐planar DTI
Open Access
- 13 January 2006
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
- Vol. 55 (2) , 335-342
- https://doi.org/10.1002/mrm.20769
Abstract
Limited spatial resolution is a key obstacle to the study of brain white matter structure with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). In its frequent implementation with single-excitation spin-echo echo-planar sequences, DTI's ability to resolve small structures is strongly restricted by T2 and T decay, B0 inhomogeneity, and limited signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In this work the influence of sensitivity encoding (SENSE) on diffusion-weighted (DW) image properties is investigated. Computer simulations showed that the PSF becomes narrower with increasing SENSE reduction factors, R, enhancing the intrinsic resolution. After a brief theoretical discussion, we describe the estimation of SNR on a pixel-by-pixel basis as a function of R. The mean image SNR behavior is manifold: SENSE is capable of increasing SNR efficiency by reducing the echo time (TE). Each SNR(R) curve reveals a maximum that depends on the amount of partial Fourier encoding used. The overall best SNR efficiency for an eight-element head coil array and a b-factor of 1000 s/mm2 is achieved at R = 2.1 and partial Fourier encoding of 60%. In vivo tensor maps of volunteers and a patient, with an in-plane resolution of 0.78 × 0.78 mm2, are also presented to demonstrate the practical implementation of the parallel approach. Magn Reson Med, 2006.Keywords
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