Eric Aliotta1,2, Holden H Wu1,2, and Daniel B Ennis1,2
1Radiological Sciences, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, United States, 2Biomedical Physics IDP, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Bulk motion compensated diffusion encoding is critical for accurately measuring diffusion in the heart. However, the diffusion encoding gradient waveforms required to suppress bulk motion artifacts can extend TE and limit SNR. We have developed a Convex Optimized Diffusion Encoding (CODE) framework to design time-optimal, motion compensated diffusion encoding gradients that remove sequence dead times and minimize TE. CODE gradients were designed and implemented for cardiac DWI on a 3.0T clinical scanner in healthy volunteers and patients. CODE reduced bulk motion artifacts compared with conventional monopolar encoding.
