Preclinical spiral imaging with a high-performance gradient insert: a comparison of trajectory correction methods

We compared three different trajectory correction methods in spiral phantom images on a preclinical 7T scanner with a high-performance gradient insert. The first was an isotropic delay-correction, the second a gradient correction based on the gradient system transfer function (GSTF), and the third employed measured trajectories. In both an axial and a double-oblique slice, the measured trajectory resulted in the best image quality, while the delay-corrected images suffered from halo effects and signal bleeding. The GSTF-corrected images only had minor remaining artifacts, stemming from trajectory deviations due to non-linearities in the gradient chain.