Nonlinear phase correction of navigated multi-coil diffusion images

Cardiac pulsatility causes a nonrigid motion of the brain. In multi-shot diffusion imaging this leads to spatially varying phase changes that must be corrected. A conjugate gradient based reconstruction is presented that includes phase changes measured using two-dimensional navigator echoes, coil sensitivity information, navigator-determined weightings, and data from multiple coils and averages. A multi-shot echo planar sequence was used to image brain regions where pulsatile motion is not uniform. Reduced susceptibility artifacts were observed compared to a clinical single-shot sequence. In a higher slice, fiber directions derived from singleshot data show distortions from anatomical scans by as much as 7 mm compared to less than 2 mm for our multi-shot reconstructions. The reduced distortions imply that phase encoding can be applied in the shorter left-right direction, enabling time savings through the use of a rectangular field of view. Higher resolution diffusion imaging in the spine permits visualization of a nerve root.