Stephen R. Yutzy1, Sudhir K. Pathak2, Kevin Jarbo2, Walter Schneider2, Fernando E. Boada1
1Radiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; 2Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
As white matter tractography grows in popularity, its frequently lengthy acquisition times become more problematic. We propose the q-space trajectory, where multiple points in q-space are sampled within each TR, as a reconstruction-independent method for accelerating these acquisitions. Comparable orientation distribution functions are obtained from a conventional DSI sequence and an accelerated q-space trajectory version of the same diffusion directions. The q-space trajectory technique is compatible with other acceleration methods such as compressed sensing and multi-band imaging.