Romer-EPTI: Rotating-view Motion-robust Super-resolution EPTI for SNR-efficient Distortion-free In-vivo Mesoscale DMRI and Microstructure Imaging

Overview

Journal bioRxiv

Date 2024 Feb 14

PMID 38352481

Authors

Zijing Dong

Timothy G Reese

Hong-Hsi Lee

Susie Y Huang

Jonathan R Polimeni

Lawrence L Wald

Fuyixue Wang

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Purpose: To overcome the major challenges in dMRI acquisition, including low SNR, distortion/blurring, and motion vulnerability.

Methods: A novel Romer-EPTI technique is developed to provide distortion-free dMRI with significant SNR gain, high motion-robustness, sharp spatial resolution, and simultaneous multi-TE imaging. It introduces a ROtating-view Motion-robust supEr-Resolution technique (Romer) combined with a distortion/blurring-free EPTI encoding. Romer enhances SNR by a simultaneous multi-thick-slice acquisition with rotating-view encoding, while providing high motion-robustness through a motion-aware super-resolution reconstruction, which also incorporates slice-profile and real-value diffusion, to resolve high-isotropic-resolution volumes. The in-plane encoding is performed using distortion/blurring-free EPTI, which further improves effective spatial resolution and motion robustness by preventing not only T/T*-blurring but also additional blurring resulting from combining encoded volumes with inconsistent geometries caused by dynamic distortions. Self-navigation was incorporated to enable efficient phase correction. Additional developments include strategies to address slab-boundary artifacts, achieve minimal TE for SNR gain at 7T, and achieve high robustness to strong phase variations at high b-values.

Results: Using Romer-EPTI, we demonstrate distortion-free whole-brain mesoscale in-vivo dMRI at both 3T (500-μm-iso) and 7T (485-μm-iso) for the first time, with high SNR efficiency (e.g., ), and high image quality free from distortion and slab-boundary artifacts with minimal blurring. Motion experiments demonstrate Romer-EPTI's high motion-robustness and ability to recover sharp images in the presence of motion. Romer-EPTI also demonstrates significant SNR gain and robustness in high b-value (b=5000s/mm) and time-dependent dMRI.

Conclusion: Romer-EPTI significantly improves SNR, motion-robustness, and image quality, providing a highly efficient acquisition for high-resolution dMRI and microstructure imaging.

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