title: Interleaved spiral-in/out with application to functional MRI (fMRI).
abstract: The conventional spiral-in/out trajectory samples k-space sufficiently in the spiral-in path and sufficiently in the spiral-out path to enable creation of separate images. We propose an "interleaved spiral-in/out" trajectory comprising a spiral-in path that gathers one half of the k-space data, and a complimentary spiral-out path that gathers the other half. The readout duration is thereby reduced by approximately half, offering two distinct advantages: reduction of signal dropout due to susceptibility-induced field gradients (at the expense of signal-to-noise ratio [SNR]), and the ability to achieve higher spatial resolution when the readout duration is identical to the conventional method. Two reconstruction methods are described; both involve temporal filtering to remove aliasing artifacts. Empirically, interleaved spiral-in/out images are free from false activation resulting from signal pileup around the air/tissue interface, which is common in the conventional spiral-out method. Comparisons with conventional methods using a hyperoxia stimulus reveal greater frontal-orbital activation volumes but a slight reduction of overall activation in other brain regions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Center for Advanced MR Technology at Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305-5488, USA. cslaw@stanford.edu
authors.forename: Christine S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Law
authors.forename: Gary H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Glover
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity