What can be done to reduce the appearance of susceptibility artifacts?

Increasing the receiving bandwidth is an effective strategy to reduce the appearance of susceptibility artifacts in MRI imaging. Susceptibility artifacts occur when there is a disturbance in the magnetic field caused by differences in susceptibility between adjacent tissues, such as air and soft tissue or between differing tissue types. These artifacts can lead to distortions or signal loss that negatively impacts image quality.

When the receiving bandwidth is increased, the MRI system captures a broader range of frequencies, which allows for better differentiation between signals from different tissues. A wider bandwidth shortens the echo time for each frequency component, thus reducing the time available for the phase shifts caused by susceptibility differences to influence the signal. Consequently, this can lead to less pronounced artifacts and more accurate representation of the underlying anatomy.

While other options such as increasing TR (repetition time) or TE (echo time) can affect image quality, they typically do not specifically target the reduction of susceptibility artifacts in the same effective manner as increasing the receiving bandwidth. A gradient echo sequence is often associated with increased susceptibility artifacts due to inherently having lower sensitivity to magnetic field gradients.