Double-sampled echo-planar imaging at 3 tesla

A persistent artifact in the images acquired by the echo-planar imaging (EPI) method is the Nyquist or N/2 ghost which interferes with the image and reduces the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The Nyquist ghost is the result of the time-reversal asymmetry between the even and odd echoes. To eliminate this artifact, the authors present a double-sampled EPI (DSEPI) method in which echoes from each even and odd echo pair are equally phase encoded. The even and odd echoes are separately reconstructed into two distinct images which are then added together. The DSEPI method has been applied to human brain at 3.0 T and shown to be a simple and effective way to eliminate the Nyquist ghost and restore image SNR loss.