Collaborative Reconstruction of PROPELLER‐EPI Data Using POCSMUSE (CORPUSE) for High‐Fidelity Diffusion MRI

PURPOSE: To develop a reconstruction framework for DW-PROPELLER-EPI that improves image quality and SNR efficiency under per-blade acceleration while minimizing EPI-related artifacts, enabling high-resolution diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI) with fewer blades. METHODS: We propose CORPUSE, a joint reconstruction framework adapted from POCSMUSE and tailored for multiblade DW-PROPELLER-EPI. The method integrates distortion-correction operators into a joint-blade reconstruction model and exploits the inherent redundancy of multiblade sampling. Leveraging self-extracted composite 2D phase errors and blade-specific field maps as physics-based constraints, CORPUSE improves reconstruction performance. By using wider blades with higher per-blade acceleration, the framework increases scan efficiency while preserving image quality and geometric fidelity. The framework was evaluated in healthy volunteers on a 1.5T MRI scanner across varying numbers of blades and with two PROPELLER-EPI trajectories: long-axis (LAP) and short-axis (SAP), under different per-blade accelerations and scan conditions. RESULTS: In vivo experiments showed that CORPUSE improved image sharpness, geometric fidelity, and overall reconstruction quality compared with conventional PROPELLER-EPI reconstruction. These improvements enabled higher per-blade acceleration and wider blades without compromising image quality, thereby supporting more flexible and efficient reconstruction for LAP and SAP trajectory. Additionally, CORPUSE demonstrated greater motion resilience than multishot EPI based on multiplexed sensitivity encoding (MUSE), preserving structural detail even under subtle motion conditions. CONCLUSION: The CORPUSE framework enables high-resolution, high-quality DTI with fewer blades, improving the practicality of DW-PROPELLER-EPI. By maintaining SNR and geometric accuracy under high per-blade acceleration, it offers a robust and efficient alternative to other multishot diffusion imaging approaches.