US 11,815,583 B2
Echo-spacing shuffling for echo-planar-imaging
Patrick Liebig, Erlangen (DE); David Andrew Porter, Regensburg (DE); and Robin Heidemann, Litzendorf (DE)
Assigned to Siemens Healthcare GmbH, Erlangen (DE); and University of Glasgow, Glasgow (GB)
Filed by Siemens Healthcare GmbH, Erlangen (DE); and University of Glasgow, Glasgow (GB)
Filed on Jun. 24, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/848,529.
Claims priority of application No. 21182848 (EP), filed on Jun. 30, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2023/0003820 A1, Jan. 5, 2023
Int. Cl. G01R 33/561 (2006.01); G01R 33/48 (2006.01)
CPC G01R 33/5616 (2013.01) [G01R 33/4824 (2013.01); G01R 33/5611 (2013.01)] 11 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An Echo-Planar-Imaging (EPI) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method combined with a variable-density undersampling scheme, comprising:
generating a radio frequency (RF) pulse;
applying a switched frequency-encoding read out gradient in a variable time interval; and
applying simultaneously an intermittently blipped low-magnitude phase-encoding gradient with a variable value of an integral of the intermittently blipped low-magnitude phase-encoding gradient, such that k-space is at least partially undersampled,
wherein a time interval of the switched frequency-encoding read out gradient is varied depending on a value of the integral of the intermittently blipped low-magnitude phase-encoding gradient such that a ratio between (i) the variable time interval of the switched frequency-encoding read out gradient, and (ii) the value of the integral of the corresponding intermittently blipped low-magnitude phase-encoding gradient is maintained above or at a predetermined value, and
wherein the predetermined value is based upon a predetermined criteria of image quality.