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Updated: Mar 19, 2026
Simultaneous PET/MRI Imaging During Mouse Cerebral Hypoxia-ischemia
Published on: September 20, 2015
High resolution CBV assessment with PEAK-EPI: k-t-undersampling and reconstruction in echo planar imaging
Rebecca Ramb1, Irina Mader2, Bernd Jung3
1Department of Radiology, Medical Physics, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
Purpose:
Achieving higher spatial resolution and improved brain coverage while mitigating in-plane susceptibility artifacts in the assessment of perfusion parameters, such as cerebral blood volume, in echo planar imaging (EPI)-based dynamic susceptibility contrast weighted cerebral perfusion measurements.
Methods:
PEAK-EPI, an EPI sequence with interleaved readout trajectories and three different strategies for autocalibration-signal acquisition (inplace, dynamic extra and extra) is presented. Performance of each approach is analyzed in vivo based on flip angle variation induced dynamics, assessing temporal fidelity, temporal SNR and g-factors. All approaches are compared with conventional GRAPPA reconstructions. PEAK-EPI with inplace autocalibration-signal at R = 5 is then compared with the standard clinical EPI protocol in six patients, using two half-dose dynamic susceptibility contrast weighted cerebral perfusion measurements per subject.
Results:
PEAK-EPI acquisition facilitates a substantial increase of spatial resolution at a higher number of slices per TR and provides improved SNR compared to conventional GRAPPA. High dependency of the resulting reconstruction quality on the type of autocalibration-signal acquisition is observed. PEAK-EPI with inplace autocalibration-signal achieves high temporal fidelity and initial feasibility is shown.
Conclusion:
The obtained high resolution cerebral blood volume maps reveal more detailed information than in corresponding standard EPI measurements and facilitate detailed delineation of tumorous tissue. Magn Reson Med 77:2153-2166, 2017. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.
