Correction of local B0 shifts in 3D EPSI of the human brain at 4 T

High-spatial-resolution acquisition (HR) was previously proposed for 3D echo-planar spectroscopic imaging (EPSI) in combination with a high-spatial-resolution water reference EPSI data set to minimize inhomogeneous spectral line broadening, allowing for local frequency shift (B0 shift) correction in human brain metabolite maps at 1.5 T (Ebel A et al., Magn. Reson. Imaging 21:113–120, 2003). At a higher magnetic field strength, B0, increased field inhomogeneities typically lead to increased line broadening. Additionally, increased susceptibility variations render shimming of the main magnetic field over the whole head more difficult. This study addressed the question whether local B0-shift correction still helps limit line broadening in whole-brain 3D EPSI at higher magnetic fields. The combination of HR and local B0-shift correction to limit line broadening was evaluated at 4 T. Similar to the results at 1.5 T, the approach provided a high yield of voxels with good spectral quality for 3D EPSI, resulting in improved brain coverage.