Simultaneous MultiSlice (SMS) EPI with Blipped-CAIPI

We are pleased to announce Version 2.0 of our Simultaneous MultiSlice (SMS) EPI1-5 with Blipped-CAIPI5-6 software package for fMRI and diffusion applications. New features include:

  1. User control of sliceGRAPPA5 kernel sizes
  2. New optimized, fast image reconstruction for the sliceGRAPPA method
  3. Real-time reconstruction of high MultiBand acquisitions using Geometric Coil Compression7-8
  4. LeakBlock reconstruction for reduced cross-slice signal contamination9
  5. Full compatibility between SMS and iPAT for combined slice and in-plane acceleration10
  6. Peak power reduction using optimized phase schedules11

Pulse sequence and image reconstruction software is available for various Siemens platform versions including: VB17A, VB19A, VD11D, VD13A, VD13C, and VD13D.

To request the software, or for more information, please contact c2p@martinos.org.

References

  1. Larkman DJ, Hajnal J V, Herlihy AH, Coutts GA, Young IR, Ehnholm G. Use of multicoil arrays for separation of signal from multiple slices simultaneously excited.  Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging 13 (2): 313–7. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11169840.
  2. Breuer FA, Blaimer M, Heidemann RM, Mueller MF, Griswold MA, Jakob PM. Controlled aliasing in parallel imaging results in higher acceleration (CAIPIRINHA) for multi-slice imaging. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 53 (3): 684–91. doi:10.1002/mrm.20401. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15723404.
  3. Moeller S, Yacoub E, Olman CA, Auerbach E, Strupp J, Harel N, Uğurbil K. Multiband multislice GE-EPI at 7 tesla, with 16-fold acceleration using partial parallel imaging with application to high spatial and temporal whole-brain fMRI. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 63 (5): 1144–53. doi:10.1002/mrm.22361. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20432285.
  4. Feinberg DA, Moeller S, Smith SM, Auerbach E, Ramanna S, Glasser MF, Miller KL, Ugurbil K, Yacoub E. Multiplexed Echo Planar Imaging for sub-second whole brain fMRI and fast diffusion imaging. PLoS ONE 5 (12): e15710. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0015710. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21187930.
  5. Setsompop K, Gagoski BA, Polimeni JR, Witzel T, Wedeen VJ, Wald LL. Blipped-controlled aliasing in parallel imaging for simultaneous multislice echo planar imaging with reduced g-factor penalty. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 67 (5): 1210–24. doi:10.1002/mrm.23097. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21858868.
  6. Setsompop K, Cohen-Adad J, Gagoski BA, Raij T, Yendiki A, Keil B, Wedeen VJ, Wald LL. Improving diffusion MRI using simultaneous multi-slice echo planar imaging. NeuroImage 63 (1): 569–80. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.06.033. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22732564.
  7. Zhang T, Pauly JM, Vasanawala SS, Lustig M. Coil compression for accelerated imaging with Cartesian sampling. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 69 (2): 571–82. doi:10.1002/mrm.24267. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22488589.
  8. Cauley S, Lustig M, Bilgic B, Bhat H, Wald LL, Setsompop K. Geometric-decomposition coil compression for real-time Simultaneous MultiSlice EPI reconstruction at high MultiBand factors. Proc Intl Soc Mag Reson Med 2014;23: In press.
  9. Cauley SF, Polimeni JR, Bhat H, Wald LL, Setsompop K. Interslice leakage artifact reduction technique for simultaneous multislice acquisitions. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine: In press. doi:10.1002/mrm.24898. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23963964.
  10. Setsompop K, Kimmlingen R, Eberlein E, Witzel T, Cohen-Adad J, McNab JA, Keil B, Tisdall MD, Hoecht P, Dietz P, Cauley SF, Tountcheva V, Matschl V, Lenz VH, Heberlein K, Potthast A, Thein H, Van Horn J, Toga A, Schmitt F, Lehne D, Rosen BR, Wedeen V, Wald LL. Pushing the limits of in vivo diffusion MRI for the Human Connectome Project. NeuroImage 80: 220–33. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.05.078. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23707579.
  11. Wong EC. Optimized phase schedules for minimizing peak RF power in simultaneous multi-slice RF excitation pulses. Proc Intl Soc Mag Reson Med 2012;20:2209.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Thomas Witzel (MGH), Borjan Gagoski (Boston Children’s Hospital), Cornelius Eichner (MGH), Himanshu Bhat (Siemens), Steve Cauley (MGH), Keith Heberlein (Siemens), Jon Polimeni (MGH) and Kawin Setsompop (MGH) for their efforts in developing this software.