3D ECHO-PLANAR IMAGING - APPLICATION TO THE HUMAN HEAD

In this work, the authors present 3D images acquired from the human he ad using echo planar encoding for two of the three dimensions of k-spa ce. The third dimension of k-space is filled by selecting and phase en coding a slab of spins as in conventional 3D steady state (GRASS based ) acquisition regimens. Using this approach, a 128 x 64 x 64 3D data m atrix could be obtained in 3.4-4.7 sec using effective TE values of 24 and 34 ms, respectively. High quality 3D images could be acquired onc e phase ghosts present on 2D images were minimized through proper adju stments of scanner hardware.