Fast MR Spectroscopic Imaging Technologies and Data Reconstruction Methods

MRSI plays a more and more important role in clinical application. In this paper,we compare several fast MRSI technologies and data reconstruction methods. For the conventional phase encoding MRSI,the data reconstruction using FFT is simple. But the data acquisition is very time consuming and thus prohibitive in clinical settings. Up to now,the MRSI technologies based on echo-planar, spiral trajectories and sensitivity encoding are the fastest in data acquisition,but their data reconstruction is complex. EPSI reconstruction uses shift of odd and even echoes. Spiral SI uses gridding FFT. SENSE-SI,a new approach to reducing the acquisition time,uses the distinct spatial sensitivities of the individual coil elements to recover the missing encoding information. These improvements in data acquisition and image reconstruction provide a potential value of metabolic imaging as a clinical tool.