A Novel Robust Algorithm to Correct for Eddy Current Distortions in High b-value Diffusion MRI

Introduction Eddy currents (EC) are known to distort diffusion-weighted (DW) images. The image distortions increase in magnitude with increased diffusion sensitisation (b–value) while the signal to noise (SNR) decreases simultaneously. This is challenging for post processing correction methods that compare DW image volumes with a non-DW image volume. Such methods have been confirmed to work well for b-values up to about 1000 s/mm [1]. In this study, a novel algorithm is described which corrects distortions in image sets with high b-values (up to 3000 s/mm) and low SNR. The algorithm compares entire image sets with several b-values to maximize local correlation between images, and produces protocol specific parameters that can be applied for fast correction of following image sets.