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Abstract Purpose This study aimed to evaluate the potential of 3D EPI for improving the reliability of ‐weighted data and quantification of decay rate and susceptibility ( χ ) compared with conventional gradient‐echo (GRE)‐based acquisition. Methods Eight healthy subjects in a wide age range were recruited. Each subject received repeated scans for both GRE and EPI acquisitions with an isotropic 1 mm resolution at 3 T. Maps of and χ were quantified, and their interscan differences were used to evaluate the test–retest reliability. Interprotocol differences of and χ between GRE and EPI were also measured voxel by voxel and in selected regions of interest to test the consistency between the two acquisition methods. Results The quantifications of and χ using EPI protocols showed increased test–retest reliability with higher EPI factors up to 5 as performed in the experiment and were consistent with those based on GRE. Conclusion The result suggests that multishot multi‐echo 3D EPI can be a useful alternative acquisition method for ‐weighted MRI and quantification of and χ with reduced scan time, improved test–retest reliability, and similar accuracy compared with commonly used 3D GRE.
Huang et al. (Fri,) studied this question.