Comprehensive Correction of Artifacts due to Eddy Current-Induced Echo Shifts in Partial Fourier DTI

Trong-Kha Truong¹, Nan-kuei Chen¹, Allen W. Song¹

Partial Fourier imaging is typically used in DTI to increase the SNR. However, eddy currents induced by the diffusion gradients lead to: 1) signal loss if the echo is shifted outside the acquired k-space, 2) partial Fourier reconstruction errors if the echo is shifted outside the central k-space, and 3) variation of the effective TE, resulting in additional T2*-weighting. All three types of artifact vary with location and diffusion direction, causing errors in the diffusion tensor. Here, we propose a novel acquisition and post-processing method that can effectively correct for all three types of artifact while maintaining a high SNR.