Multi-Echo-Based Echo-Planar Spectroscopic Imaging Using a 3T MRI Scanner

Abstract: The use of spin-echoes has been employed in an Echo-Planar Spectroscopic Imaging (EPSI) sequence to collect multiple phase encoded lines within a single TR in a Multi-Echo-based Echo-Planar Spectroscopic Imaging technique (MEEPSI). Despite the T₂ dependence on the amplitude of the spin-echoes, the Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) of the derived multi-echo Point Spread Function (PSF) is shown to decrease, indicating an improved overall spatial resolution without requiring any additional scan time. The improved spatial resolution is demonstrated in the one-dimensional (1D) spatial profiles of the N-Acetyl Aspartate (NAA) singlet along the phase encode dimension in a gray matter phantom. Although the improved spatial resolution comes at the expense of spectral resolution, it is shown in vivo that peak broadening due to T₂^* decay is more significant than the loss of resolution from using spin-echoes and therefore does not affect the ability to quantify metabolites using the LCModel fitting algorithm.