Abstract #3719

High resolution gradient-echo EPI using a shim insert coil at 7T: Implication for BOLD fMRI.

Tae Kim¹, Yoojin Lee¹, Tiejun Zhao², Hoby Hetherington¹, and Jullie Pan¹

¹University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ²Siemens Medical Solution USA, INC, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

High degree/order shimming was applied to improve field homogeneity thereby reducing susceptibility-induced distortion in high resolution gradient-echo EPI using a shim insert coil at 7T. Use of the shim insert improved the overall homogeneity across the entire brain by 30% in comparison to conventional 1st&2nd degree/order shimming. The susceptibility-induced displacement improved by more than 2cm and the number of activated pixels increased by 150% with higher degree shimming in regions such as the anterior temporal and frontal lobes. Our study demonstrates that the use of higher order/degree shims improves GE-EPI BOLD signal at high field.

This abstract and the presentation materials are available to members only; a login is required.

Join Here