The Anatomical magnetic resonance imaging studies at 7T have demonstrated the ability to provide high quality images of human tissue in vivo. However, diffusion-weighted imaging at 7T is limited by the increased level of artifact associated with standard, single-shot, echoplanar imaging (EPI), even when parallel imaging techniques such as GRAPPA are used to reduce the effective echo spacing. Readout-segmented EPI in conjunction with parallel imaging has the potential to reduce these artifacts

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... allowing a further reduction in effective echo spacing during the EPI readout. This study demonstrates that this approach does indeed provide a substantial improvement in image quality by reducing image blurring and susceptibility-based distortions, as well as by allowing the acquisition of diffusion-weighted images with a high spatial resolution. A preliminary application of the technique to high resolution diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) provided a high level of neuroanatomical detail, which should prove valuable in a wide range of applications.