Analysis of phase error effects in multishot diffusion-prepared turbo spin echo imaging

Background: To characterize the effect of phase errors on the magnitude and the phase of the diffusion-weighted (DW) signal acquired with diffusion-prepared turbo spin echo (dprep-TSE) sequences. Methods: Motion and eddy currents were identified as the main sources of phase errors. An analytical expression for the effect of phase errors on the acquired signal was derived and verified using Bloch simulations, phantom, and in vivo experiments. Results: Simulations and experiments showed that phase errors during the diffusion preparation cause both magnitude and phase modulation on the acquired data. When motion-induced phase error (MiPe) is accounted for (e.g., with motion-compensated diffusion encoding), the signal magnitude modulation due to the leftover eddy-current-induced phase error cannot be eliminated by the conventional phase cycling and sum-of-squares (SOS) method. By employing magnitude stabilizers, the phase-error-induced magnitude modulation, regardless of its cause, was removed but the phase modulation remained. The in vivo comparison between pulsed gradient and flow-compensated diffusion preparations showed that MiPe needed to be addressed in multi-shot dprep-TSE acquisitions employing magnitude stabilizers. Conclusions: A comprehensive analysis of phase errors in dprep-TSE sequences showed that magnitude stabilizers are mandatory in removing the phase error induced magnitude modulation. Additionally, when multi-shot dprep-TSE is employed the inconsistent signal phase modulation across shots has to be resolved before shot-combination is performed.