Echo Planar Imaging at 7T with 3rd Order Slice-Wise Dynamic Shim Update (DSU) and Full Eddy-Current Compensation (ECC)

The transition to ultra high field strengths yields advantages as increased SNR and higher BOLD contrast, but at the expense of decreased B1 and B0 homogeneity. This work presents the application of Dynamic Shim Updating (DSU) with full 3rd Order eddy-current compensation to Echo Planar Images, which are the basis for fMRI. Due to a highly accurate calibration of the pre-emphasis very fast switching of shim terms during the sequence is possible, without extending the scan time. The presented results exhibit a significant gain in image quality.