Abstract #3770

An Extended PSF Mapping Method for Distortion Correction in DW-EPI with Both Forward and Reverse Phase-Encoding Polarity at UHF

Myung-Ho In¹, Oleg Posnansky¹, Erik B. Beall², Mark J. Lowe³, Oliver Speck¹

¹Biomedical Magnetic Resonance, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany; ²Radiology, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, United States; ³Radiology, Imaging Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, United States

The geometric distortion correction quality is important to generate a distortion free diffusion weighted echo planar image (DW-EPI) without loss of spatial information. To recover spatial information in strongly compressed areas, two sets of DWIs with opposite phase-encoding (PE) polarities have been measured and combined after distortion correction. The point spread function (PSF) mapping method was used for correction due to its very high accuracy and robustness. To reduce PSF scan time, the PSF method was extended to correct distortions in both DW-EPIs with opposite PE polarities from a single PSF reference.