Reduction of artifacts in T2 -weighted PROPELLER in high-field preclinical imaging.

A simple technique is implemented for correction of artifacts arising from nonuniform T(2) -weighting of k-space data in fast spin echo-based PROPELLER (periodically rotated overlapping parallel lines with enhanced reconstruction). An additional blade with no phase-encoding gradients is acquired to generate the scaling factor used for the correction. Results from simulations and phantom experiments, as well as in vivo experiments in free-breathing mice, demonstrate the advantages of the proposed method. This technique is developed specifically for high-field imaging applications where T(2) decay is rapid.