Myung-Ho In1, Jun-Young Jung2,
Se-Hong Oh2, Maxim Zaitsev3, Zang-Hee Cho2,
Oliver Speck1
1Department Biomedical Magnetic Resonance,
Institute for Experimental Physics, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg,
Magdeburg, Germany; 2Neuroscience Research Institute, Gachon
University of Medicine and Science, Inchoen, Korea, Republic of; 3Department
of Radiologic Research, Medical Physics, University Hospital Freiburg,
Freiburg, Germany
This
method proposes an improved method with which distortions in EPI images in
the ultra high field MRI such as 7.0 Tesla can be correct automatically and
with high fidelity. The correction is a modification and extension of the
point spread function (PSF) method previously developed. In addition to more
precise mapping and correction of blurring, the method removes flow induced
artifacts which can cause errors in the shift map derived from the PSF. The
advantages of the proposed method for the correction of geometric distortions
in EPI are demonstrated in human brain in vivo at 7.0 Tesla.