Reduction of magnetic field inhomogeneity artifacts in echo planar imaging with SENSE and GESEPI at high field. Journal   Magnetic resonance in medicine : official journal of the Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine / Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. Citation   Magn Reson Med. 52(6):1418-23 Publication date   2004 Dec Authors   Yang QX Wang J Smith MB Meadowcroft M Sun X Eslinger PJ Golay X Investigators   Paul N. Eslinger Michael B. Smith Qing Yang Grant agencies   National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Grants   NIBIB R01 EB00454-01A1 Abstract   Geometric distortion, signal-loss, and image-blurring artifacts in echo planar imaging (EPI) are caused by frequency shifts and T(2)(*) relaxation distortion of the MR signal along the k-space trajectory due to magnetic field inhomogeneities. The EPI geometric-distortion artifact associated with frequency shift can be reduced with parallel imaging techniques such as SENSE, while the signal-loss and blurring artifacts remain. The gradient-echo slice excitation profile imaging (GESEPI) method has been shown to be successful in restoring tissue T(2)(*) relaxation characteristics and is therefore effective in reducing signal-loss and image-blurring artifacts at a cost of increased acquisition time. The SENSE and GESEPI methods are complementary in artifact reduction. Combining these two techniques produces a method capable of reducing all three types of EPI artifacts while maintaining rapid acquisition time.