Analysis of Diffusion-Weighted SSFP Signal with Computer Simulation

Eun Soo Choi¹, Rafael O'halloran², Ernesto Staroswiecki², Roland Bammer²

Increasingly, diffusion weighted (DW) imaging is being performed with higher numbers of diffusion directions and is moving toward isotropic 3D acquisition. DW SSFP imaging has the potential to meet these challenges due to its increased scan time efficiency compared with conventional spin echo DWI. A major factor limiting widespread adoption of DW SSFP is that the signal depends not only on pulse timing and geometry but also upon the physical parameters, T1, T2, and diffusion coefficient. Here we present Bloch simulations of the pulsed gradient DW-SSFP sequence and compare it to the extended phase graph simulation as well as to the approximate analytical solution of Wu and Buxton.