Ha-Kyu Jeong1, 2, Blake E. Dewey, 13, Jane A. T. Hirtle, 14, Adam W. Anderson1, 5, John C. Gore1, 2, Seth A. Smith1, 2
1Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, Nashville, TN, United States; 2Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States; 3Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States; 4Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States; 5Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States
Imaging optic nerve has been considered as technically challenging due to small size, presence of air-filled sinuses and confounding signals from surrounding structures. Typically, single-shot EPI has been used for DW optic nerve imaging combined with ZOOM, reduced FOV or outer-volume-suppression techniques. However, these studies still suffer low SNR and residual EPI-related artifacts. This study presents the first DW multi-shot optic nerve imaging with SENSE and 2D navigator for reduced EPI artifacts and correction of motion-induced linear and non-linear shot-to-shot phase variations. Using developed pulse sequence and reconstruction methods, clear DW optic nerve images are presented free of ghosting and reasonable diffusion indices.