Improved 3-Dimensional Reconstruction of Diffusion Data Using Overlapping Slices

Rita G. Nunes¹, Joseph V. Hajnal¹

As Diffusion-Weighted images are inherently very sensitive to motion, full brain coverage is achieved by imaging multiple 2D single shot slices. However, as most fiber tracts in the brain have a 3-dimensional structure, ensuring that the anatomy is fully sampled along all three dimensions is likely to be important. Conventionally, the same slice prescription is used for all diffusion sensitization directions. We demonstrate that by using overlapping slices and/or combining slices acquired along orthogonal directions higher fidelity anisotropy maps can be reconstructed. Using this type of geometry should also increase data robustness in the presence of more severe subject motion.