Matthew M. Cheung1,2, Jerry S. Cheung1,2,
Li Xiao1,2, April M. Chow1,2, Kannie W. Chan1,2,
Ed X. Wu1,2
1Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and
Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China; 2Department
of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong,
Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China
Although
DW-EPI offers high acquisition speed, it generally suffers from low spatial
resolution and geometric distortion. SSFP is a possible alternative to
perform diffusion imaging with higher resolution and with no distortion
artifacts that is inherent in EPI. In this study, we modified the balanced
SSFP sequence by adding a pair of bipolar diffusion sensitizing gradients.
The diffusion effect in bSSFP sequence with a pair of bipolar diffusion
gradients was formulated and DW-bSSFP experiment was performed on in vivo rat
brain at 7T.