Parallel Line Scan Diffusion Tensor Imaging

Renxin Chu¹, Bruno Madore¹, Lawrence P. Panych¹, Stephan E. Marier¹

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has been widely used in the study of white matter-related diseases. Single-shot echo-planar imaging (EPI) is usually the preferred technique, but EPI images may exhibit severe geometric distortions, especially near the skull base. Line scan diffusion imaging (LSDI) is a one-dimensional Fourier encoding technique with considerable robustness against motion and geometric distortions. We present a parallel LSDI diffusion tensor imaging technique with acceleration along two dimensions, with 3D whole brain coverage and four-fold acceleration. The speed-up remarkably comes at no cost in SNR, and preserves the LSDI immunity to susceptibility-induced signal losses and geometric image distortions.