SENSE reconstruction for multiband EPI including slice-dependent N/2 ghost correction.

Area of Science:

• Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• Image Reconstruction

Background:

• Multiband echo planar imaging (EPI) using Sensitivity Encoding (SENSE) can produce artifacts.
• These artifacts arise when simultaneously excited slices require different phase corrections for EPI-specific ghosting.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a simplified solution combining SENSE unfolding with image-domain EPI phase correction.
• To address artifacts in multiband EPI SENSE reconstruction.

Main Methods:

• Incorporated slice-dependent phase correction into equations linking folded and true slice images.
• Developed a method that integrates SENSE unfolding with EPI phase correction in the image domain.
• Reduced problem complexity by N(2)/4 compared to direct fit methods.

Main Results:

• The proposed method effectively tolerates significant differences in phase correction between slices.
• Demonstrated superior artifact suppression compared to standard SENSE, even with slice-specific ghost correction.
• Achieved significantly faster reconstruction times than direct fit ghost-correcting SENSE.

Conclusions:

• The modified SENSE approach enables rapid separation of simultaneously acquired EPI slices.
• This method is effective even with varying phase correction requirements per slice.
• Improves efficiency and image quality in multiband EPI SENSE.