An EPIK Navigation Towards High-Resolution Diffusion-Weighted Imaging

R. G. Nunes, P. Jezzard, H. Johansen-Berg, T. E. Behrens, S. Clare FMRIB Centre, University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom Synopsis: Interleaved Echo Planar Imaging (IEPI) can be used to produce high-resolution Diffusion-Weighted Images (DWI). However, DW makes the images particularly sensitive to patient motion, resulting in severe artefacts. These problems can be overcome by acquiring a 2D navigator echo after each interleave. Such an approach is not efficient, since the navigator does not contribute signal to the image. We propose the use of a self-navigated sequence based on IEPI which enables the simultaneous acquisition of the navigator and the readout and also offers the advantage of using a Cartesian grid. Also demonstrated is its ability to identify fine tract splits.