title: Reduced field-of-view imaging for single-shot MRI with an amplitude-modulated chirp pulse excitation and Fourier transform reconstruction.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We employ an amplitude-modulated chirp pulse to selectively excite spins in one or more regions of interest (ROIs) to realize reduced field-of-view (rFOV) imaging based on single-shot spatiotemporally encoded (SPEN) sequence and Fourier transform reconstruction.
  
  
  METHODS
  The proposed rFOV imaging method was theoretically analyzed and illustrated with numerical simulation and tested with phantom experiments and in vivo rat experiments. In addition, point spread function was applied to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method. To evaluate the proposed method, the rFOV results were compared with those obtained using the EPI method with orthogonal RF excitation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The simulation and experimental results show that the proposed method can image one or two separated ROIs along the SPEN dimension in a single shot with higher spatial resolution, less sensitive to field inhomogeneity, and practically no aliasing artifacts. In addition, the proposed method may produce rFOV images with comparable signal-to-noise ratio to the rFOV EPI images.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The proposed method is promising for the applications under severe susceptibility heterogeneities and for imaging separate ROIs simultaneously.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Science, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Plasma and Magnetic Resonance, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Science, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Plasma and Magnetic Resonance, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
authors.forename: Miao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Science, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Plasma and Magnetic Resonance, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China. Electronic address: cbcai@xmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Congbo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Science, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Plasma and Magnetic Resonance, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
authors.forename: Huijun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Science, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Plasma and Magnetic Resonance, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China. Electronic address: shcai@xmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Shuhui
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cai
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D007668:Kidney / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
keywords: Fourier transform; Point spread function; Reduced field-of-view; Single-shot MRI; Spatial selectivity; Spatiotemporally encoded MRI