Single‐shot spiral image acquisition with embedded z‐shimming for susceptibility signal recovery

PURPOSE: To efficiently and effectively recover the susceptibility-induced signal losses for functional MRI (fMRI) experiments. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The signal losses near air/tissue interfaces at the ventral brain regions introduce difficulties in the neuroimaging studies concerned with brain functions such as memory, emotion, and olfaction processes. The z-shimming technique has been introduced in fMRI image acquisition to recover such losses. One significant drawback of such an approach is its time consuming nature. In this report, a single-shot spiral imaging method, which combines spiral-in and spiral-out acquisitions along with embedded z-shimming gradient, was proposed and implemented to achieve signal recovery without sacrificing temporal resolution. RESULTS: Using the proposed method, final images were shown in the ventral brain regions. The images were acquired with a throughput of 16 slices/second and demonstrated effectiveness and efficiency in signal recovery near air/tissue interfaces. CONCLUSION: Uniform recovery can be achieved efficiently near air/tissue interfaces where susceptibility-induced spatial gradients are pronounced. We anticipate that our method would be well suited for fMRI studies involving the ventral brain areas.