Measuring the transverse relaxation times (T2s)
of metabolites from different regions of the brain provides important insight
into different pathologies, but requires long acquisition. A novel k-space
acquisition using a hybrid technique involving both echo planar spectroscopic
imaging (EPSI) and concentrically circular echo planar trajectories (SI-CONCEPT) was
applied to simulated brain tumor spectroscopic imaging data. In addition, an
algorithm incorporating the backprojection information from the EPSI scan was
developed to enhance the spectroscopic images. This novel acquisition and
reconstruction technique, called SI-WEB, decreases the total duration of the
scan while producing similar results when compared to the true T2
spectroscopic images.