Zero-echo-time sequences in highly inhomogeneous fields

TL;DR

This paper introduces a correction method for B0 inhomogeneity artifacts in Zero Echo Time MRI sequences, improving image quality in challenging inhomogeneous fields using a novel magnetic field mapping and reconstruction approach.

Contribution

The paper presents a new artifact correction technique based on magnetic field maps for ZTE MRI, applicable to various pulse sequences and extreme magnet geometries.

Findings

Significantly reduces artifacts caused by B0 inhomogeneities in ZTE MRI.

Effective even with intra-voxel bandwidths comparable to encoding bandwidth.

Applicable to low-field MRI and single-sided imaging scenarios.

Abstract

Zero echo time (ZTE) sequences have proven a powerful tool for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of ultrashort T2 tissues, but they fail to produce useful images in the presence of strong field inhomogeneities. Here we present a method to correct artifacts induced by strong B0 inhomogeneities in non-Cartesian sequences, based on magnetic field maps obtained from the phase difference between two fast pointwise acquisitions. These are free of geometric distortions and can be used for model based image reconstruction with iterative algebraic techniques. In this paper, we show that distortions and artifacts coming from inhomogeneites in B0 are largely reverted by our method, as opposed to standard Conjugate Phase reconstructions. We base this technique on a Single-Point Double-Shot (SPDS) approach, and we have shown it to work even for intra-voxel bandwidths (determined by B0 inhomogeneities) comparable to the encoding bandwidth (determined by the gradient fields). We benchmark the performance of SPDS for ZTE acquisitions, which can be exploited for e.g. dental imaging in affordable low-field MRI systems. Furthermore, SPDS can be used for arbitrary pulse sequences and it may prove useful for extreme magnet geometries, as in e.g. single-sided MRI.