MR physics and safety for fMRI

Wald, fMRI MR Physics

Massachusetts General HospitalAthinoula A. Martinos Center

MR physics and safety

for fMRILawrence L. Wald, Ph.D.

Wald, fMRI MR Physics

Outline:Monday Oct 18 (LLW):

MR signal, Gradient and spin echoBasic image contrast

Monday Oct 25 (LLW):Fast imaging for fMRI, artifacts

Wed. Oct 20 (JJ):Encoding the image

Wed. Oct 25 (LLW):fMRI BOLD contrast

Mon. Nov. 1 (JJ):Review, plus other contrast mechanisms for fMRI (CBV, CBF)

Wald, fMRI MR Physics

• Why, introduction

• How: Review of k-space trajectories Different techniques (EPI, Spiral)

• Problems from B0 Susceptibility artifacts

Fast MR ImagingTechniques

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Why fast imaging

Capture time course,(e.g. hemodynamic)eliminate artifact from motion (during encode.)

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Magnetization vector durning MR RF

Voltage(Signal)

time

Mz

time

encode

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Review of Image encoding,journey through kspace

Two questions:

1) What does blipping on a gradient do to thewater magnetization.

2) Why does measuring the signal amplitudeafter a blip tell you info about the spatialfrequency composition of the image (k-space).

Wald, fMRI MR Physics

Aside: Magnetic field gradient

Uniform magnet Field from gradient coils

Total field

Bo Gx x Bo + Gx x

x

z

Gx Bz x

Wald, fMRI MR Physics

Step two: encode spatial info.

in-plane

x

y

x

B

Fie

ld(w

/ x g

radi

ent) B

o

BTOT = Bo + Gz x

Freq.

Sign

alBo along z

o

with gradient without gradient

“Frequency encoding”

v = BTOT = (Bo + Gx x)

Wald, fMRI MR Physics

How does blipping on a grad. encodespatial info?

y

B

Fie

ld(w

/ z g

radi

ent) B

o

Bo

Gy

y1 y2

z

y

y1

y2

all y locs process at same freq.

all y locs process at same freq.

spins in foreheadprecessfaster...

y = BTOT = Bo y Gy

y = y=Bo y (Gy

Wald, fMRI MR Physics

How does blipping on a grad. encode

spatial info?z

y

y1

y2

yx yx

z

x y

z

o

90°

yx

after RF After the blipped y gradient...

position y1 position 0 position y2

z z

Bo

y = y=Bo y (Gy

Wald, fMRI MR Physics

How does blipping on a grad. encodespatial info?

The magnetization vectorin the xy plane is wound intoa helix directed along y axis.

Phases are ‘locked in’ oncethe blip is over.

y

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y = y=Bo y (Gy

The bigger the gradient blip area,

the tighter the helix y

small blip medium blip large blip

Gy

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What have you measured?Consider 2 samples:

unifo

rm w

ater 1 cm

no signal observed signal is as big as if no gradient

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10 mm

kx

ky

1/10 mm

1/5mm

1/2.5mm

1/1.2mm = 1/Resolution

Measurement intensity at a spatial frequency...

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kx

ky1 / Resx

1 / FOVx

FOVx = matrix * Resx

Fourier transform

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Sample 3 points in kspace

More efficient!

t

kx

1/10 mm

1/5mm

1/2.5mm

1/1.2mm = 1/Resolution

t

Gy

Gy

Frequency and phase encoding are the same principle!

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Conventional “Spin-warp” encoding

“slice select”

“phase enc”

“freq. enc” (read-out)

RF

tS(t)

tGz tGy

Gx t

t

kx

ky

one excitation, one line of kspace...

a1

a2

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Image encoding,

“Journey throughkspace”

The Movie…

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kx

ky1 / Resx

1 / FOVx

FOVx = matrix * Resx

Fourier transform

Wald, fMRI MR Physics

Conventional “Spin-warp” encoding

“slice select”

“phase enc”

“freq. enc” (read-out)

RF

tS(t)

tGz tGy

Gx t

t

kx

ky

one excitation, one line of kspace...

a1

a2

Wald, fMRI MR Physics

“Echo-planar” encoding

RF

tS(t)(nograds)

tGz tGy

Gx

t

kx

ky

one excitation, many lines of kspace...

etc...

T2*

T2*

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Bandwidth is asymmetric in EPI

kx

ky

• Adjacent points in kx have short t = 5 us (high bandwidth)

• Adjacent points along ky are takenwith long t (= 500us). (low bandwidth)

The phase error (and thus distortions) are in the phase encode direction.

Wald, fMRI MR Physics

RF tGz tGy

Gx

t

esp = 500 us for whole body grads, readout length = 32 msesp = 270us for head gradients, readout length = 17 ms

Characterization of EPI performance

length of readout train for given resolution or echo spacing (esp) or freq of readout…

‘echo spacing’ (esp)

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What is important in EPI performance?

Short image encoding time.

Parameters related to total encoding time:1) echo spacing.2) frequency of readout waveform.

Key specs for achieving short encode times:1) gradient slew rate.2) gradient strength.3) ability to ramp sample.

Good shimming (second order shims)

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Susceptibility in MR

The good.

The bad.

The ugly.

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Enemy #1 of EPI: local susceptibility gradients

Bo field maps in the head

Wald, fMRI MR Physics

Enemy #1 of EPI: local susceptibility gradients

Bo field maps in the head

Wald, fMRI MR Physics

What do we mean by “susceptibility”?

In physics, it refers to a material’s tendency to magnetize when placed in an external field.

In MR, it refers to the effects of magnetized material on the image through its local distortion of the static magnetic field Bo.

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Susceptibility effects occur near magnetically dis-similar materials

Field disturbance around air surrounded by water (e.g. sinuses)

Field map (coronal image)

1.5T

Bo

Ping-pong ball in water…

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Bo map in head: it’s the air tissue interface…

Sagittal Bo field maps at 3T

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Susceptibility field (in Gauss) increases w/ Bo

1.5T 3T 7T

Ping-pong ball in H20:Field maps (TE = 5ms), black lines spaced by 0.024G (0.8ppm at 3T)

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Other Sources of Susceptibility You Should Be Aware of…

Those fillings might be a problem…

Wald, fMRI MR Physics

Local susceptibility gradients: 2 effects

1) Local dephasing of the signal (signal loss) within a voxel, mainly from thru-plane gradients

2) Local geometric distortions, (voxel location improperly reconstructed) mainly from local in-plane gradients.

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1) Non-uniform Local Field Causes Local Dephasing

Sagittal Bo field map at 3T 5 water protons in different parts of the voxel…

z

slowest

fastestx

y

z90°

T = 0 T = TE

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Local susceptibility gradients: thru-plane dephasing in grad echo EPI

Bad for thick slice above frontal sinus…

3T

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Thru-plane dephasing gets worse at longer TE

3T, TE = 21, 30, 40, 50, 60ms

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Problem #2 Susceptibility Causes Image Distortion in EPI

Field near sinus

To encode the image, we control phase evolution as a function of position with applied gradients.

Local suscept. Gradient causes unwanted phase evolution.

The phase encode error builds up with time. = Blocal t

y

y

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Susceptibility Causes Image Distortion

Field near sinus

y

y

Conventional grad. echo, encode time 1/BW

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Susceptibility in EPI can give either a compression or expansion

Altering the direction kspace is transversed causes either local compression or expansion.

choose your poison…

3T whole body gradients

Wald, fMRI MR Physics

Susceptibility Causes Image Distortion

Field near sinus

z

Echoplanar Image, encode time 1/BW

Encode time = 34, 26, 22, 17ms 3T head gradients

Wald, fMRI MR Physics

EPI and Spirals

kx

ky

Gx

Gy

kx

ky

Gx

Gy

Wald, fMRI MR Physics

EPI SpiralsSusceptibility: distortion, blurring,

dephasing dephasing

Eddy currents: ghosts blurring

k = 0 is sampled: 1/2 through 1st

Corners of kspace: yes no

Gradient demands: very high pretty high

EPI and Spirals

EPI at 3T Spirals at 3T(courtesy Stanford group)

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B0

Nasal Sinus

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B0

Nasal Sinus + mouth shim

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Effect of Ear & Mouth Shim on EPI

From P. Jezzard, Oxford

B0

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With fast gradients, add parallel imaging

Acquisition: SMA

SH

SENSE

Reconstruction:

Folded datasets+

Coil sensitivity maps

Reduced k-space sampling

{

Folded images ineach receiver channel

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(iPAT) GRAPPA for EPI susceptibility

Fast gradients are the foundation, but EPI still suffers distortion

3T Trio, MRI Devices Inc. 8 channel arrayb=1000 DWI images

iPAT (GRAPPA) = 0, 2x, 3x

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4 fold acceleration of single shot sub-millimeter SE-EPI: 23 channel array

23 Channel array at 1.5T

With and without 4x Accel.

Single shot EPI,256x256, 230mm FOVTE = 78ms

Encoding with RF…

Extending the phased array to more channels:23 channel “Bucky” array for 1.5T

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9 Fold GRAPPA acceleration 3D FLASH

23 Channel array at 1.5TCan speed up encoding by an order of magnitude!

9 minute scan down to 1 minute…

3D Flash, 1mm x 1mm x 1.5mm, 256x256x128

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Whys stop at 32? 96 Channels on its way…

Receiver array: Andreas PotthastHelmut array: Graham Wiggins

Wald, fMRI MR Physics

Questions, comments to:

Larry Wald

wald@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu