3D Imaging with Multidimensional Nonlinear Encoding

Maxim Zaitsev¹, Sebastian Littin¹, Anna M. Welz¹, Feng Jia¹, Chris A. Cocosco¹, Andrew Dewdney², Gerrit Schultz¹, Jrgen Hennig¹

To overcome present limitations of gradient performance and investigate unconventional encoding topologies a PatLoc (parallel imaging technique using localized gradients) concept was proposed recently. PatLoc relaxes requirements of gradient homogeneity in favour of local gradient strength. Multidimensional encoding (MDE) combines nonlinear PatLoc fields with traditional linear gradients and holds a great promise for accelerated imaging. In this work we propose using MDE for two phase encoding directions in 3D imaging, where a traditional linear gradient is used for the signal read out. We demonstrate a feasibility of this approach by implementing a radial-in-out scheme as a pure phase encoding strategy.