High-resolution Susceptibility Weighted Fetal Brain using ZOOMit EPI and Slice to Volume reconstruction

Motivation: Susceptibility weighted imaging is of great interest in fetal MRI. Conventional single-shot EPI often suffers from field distortion and motion artifacts due to long readout. Goal(s): To develop a susceptibility-weighted isotropic fetal brain imaging technique with reduced artifacts. Approach: ZOOMit EPI was used for data acquisition. A slice-to-volume reconstruction was further employed to correct the motion between slices and reconstruct an isotropic high-resolution volume of the fetal brain. Results: Zoomit EPI produces images with reduced artifacts due to reduced acquisition time. The slice-to-volume reconstruction further corrects the motion between slices and reconstruct an isotropic high-resolution SWI-weighted volume of the fetal brain. Impact: Zoomit EPI offers faster scan times and produces images with reduced artifacts. With Zoomit EPI, high-resolution SWI-weighted isotropic fetal brain imaging has been achieved using slice-to-volume reconstruction.