Application of sensitivity-encoded echo-planar imaging for blood oxygen level-dependent functional brain imaging

✍ Scribed by Jacco A. de Zwart; Peter van Gelderen; Peter Kellman; Jeff H. Duyn

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 378 KB
• Volume: 48
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0740-3194
• DOI: 10.1002/mrm.10303

✦ Synopsis

The benefits of sensitivity-encoded (SENSE) echo-planar imaging (EPI) for functional MRI (fMRI) based on blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) contrast were quantitatively investigated at 1.5 T. For experiments with 3.4 x 3.4 x 4.0 mm(3) resolution, SENSE allowed the single-shot EPI image acquisition duration to be shortened from 24.1 to 12.4 ms, resulting in a reduced sensitivity to geometric distortions and T(*)(2) blurring. Finger-tapping fMRI experiments, performed on eight normal volunteers, showed an overall 18% loss in t-score in the activated area, which was substantially smaller than expected based on the image signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and g-factor, but similar to the loss predicted by a model that takes physiologic noise into account.