Turboprop+: enhanced Turboprop diffusion-weighted imaging with a new phase correction

Area of Science:

• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
• Medical Physics

Background:

• Periodically rotated overlapping parallel lines with enhanced reconstruction (PROPELLER) diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) techniques like Turboprop and X-prop offer faster acquisition times.
• However, these methods are susceptible to phase errors from gradient echo readouts, limiting the achievable turbo factor and scan time reduction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and evaluate Turboprop+, a novel phase correction technique for Turboprop DWI.
• To assess Turboprop+'s effectiveness in mitigating off-resonance and system imperfection-related phase errors.

Main Methods:

• Turboprop+ utilizes calibration blades to generate 2-D phase error maps.
• These calibration blades are rotated synchronously with data blades to correct for phase inconsistencies.
• The technique was compared against standard Turboprop and X-prop using a high turbo factor (turbo factor = 7).

Main Results:

• Turboprop+ demonstrated superior immunity to off-resonance artifacts compared to standard Turboprop and X-prop.
• The enhanced technique achieved this with only a minor increase in scan time due to calibration blade acquisition.
• High turbo factors were successfully implemented, minimizing off-resonance artifacts.

Conclusions:

• Turboprop+ effectively corrects phase errors in PROPELLER DWI, significantly reducing artifacts.
• This technique enables the use of high turbo factors, leading to reduced specific absorption rate and shorter scan times.
• Turboprop+ represents an advancement in DWI, offering improved image quality and efficiency.