B0‐insensitive image navigators for prospective motion‐corrected MRS with localized second‐order shimming

Purpose Localized shimming in single‐voxel MRS often results in large B0 inhomogeneity outside the volume‐of‐interest. This causes unacceptable degradation in motion navigator images. Switching back and forth between whole‐brain shim and localized shim is possible for linear shims, but not for higher‐order shims. Here we propose motion navigators largely insensitive to B0 inhomogeneity for prospective motion‐corrected MRS with localized higher‐order shimming. Methods A recent fast high‐resolution motion navigator based on spiral‐in/out k‐space trajectories and multislice‐to‐volume registration was modified by splitting the readout into multiple shot interleaves which shortened the echo time and reduced the effect of B0 inhomogeneity. The performance of motion correction was assessed in healthy subjects in the prefrontal cortex using a sLASER sequence at 3T (N = 5) and 7T (N = 5). Results With multiple spatial interleaves, excellent quality navigator images were acquired in the whole brain in spite of large B0 inhomogeneity outside the MRS voxel. The total duration of the navigator in sLASER remained relatively short even with multiple shots (3T: 10 spatial interleaves 94 ms per slice; 7T: 15 spatial interleaves 103 ms per slice). Prospective motion correction using the multi‐shot navigators yielded comparable spectral quality (water linewidth and metabolite SNR) with and without subject motion. Conclusion B0‐insensitive motion navigators enable prospective motion correction for MRS with all first‐ and second‐order shims adjusted in the MRS voxel, providing optimal spectral linewidth.