Abstract #3983

Acquisition Strategy for 3D GRASE with a Sharp Point Spread Function Towards Whole Brain ASL Perfusion Mapping at 3T

Qin Qin^1,2, Alan J. Huang^2,3, Jun Hua^1,2, Matthias J. P. van Osch⁴, Peter C. M. van Zijl^1,2

¹Radiology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States; ²F.M. Kirby Center, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States; ³Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States; ⁴Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands

3D GRASE acquisition is a natural choice for whole brain ASL perfusion mapping. In GRASE, however, a long echo train is often used that not only causes blurring but also leads to signal loss due to T2 decay during acquisition. An acquisition strategy that can achieve a sharper point spread function would require an echo train of length comparable to tissue T2. In this work, this is theoretically derived and subsequently demonstrated experimentally for whole brain perfusion mapping with both high resolution and high SNR efficiency.