Spread in frequency of a resonance line in a MR spectrum. A common measure of the line width is full width at half maximum (FWHM).

Multiplication of the time-dependent signal data by an exponential function, exp(t/TC), where t is time and TC is a parameter called the time constant (in spectroscopy). The time constant can be chosen to either improve the signal to noise ratio (with a negative TC) or decrease the effective spectral line width (with a positive TC) in the resulting spectrum. The use of a negative TC to improve SNR is equivalent to line broadening by convolving the spectrum with a Lorentzian function of corresponding reciprocal width.

A line shape characterized by a bell-shaped form; proportional to exp (-(f - f0)2/Df2) where Df is a measure of the line width.

Spectrum of NMR signal whose frequency components are broadened by a magnetic field gradient. In the simplest case (negligible line width, no relaxation effects, and no effects of prior gradients), it corresponds to a one-dimensional projection of the spin density along the direction of the gradient; in this form it is used in projection reconstruction imaging.

(EPI) Echo planar imaging is one of the early magnetic resonance imaging sequences (also known as Intascan), used in applications like diffusion, perfusion, and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Other sequences acquire one k-space line at each phase encoding step. When the echo planar imaging acquisition strategy is used, the complete image is formed from a single data sample (all k-space lines are measured in one repetition time) of a gradient echo or spin echo sequence (see single shot technique) with an acquisition time of about 20 to 100 ms. The pulse sequence timing diagram illustrates an echo planar imaging sequence from spin echo type with eight echo train pulses. (See also Pulse Sequence Timing Diagram, for a description of the components.)
In case of a gradient echo based EPI sequence the initial part is very similar to a standard gradient echo sequence. By periodically fast reversing the readout or frequency encoding gradient, a train of echoes is generated.
EPI requires higher performance from the MRI scanner like much larger gradient amplitudes. The scan time is dependent on the spatial resolution required, the strength of the applied gradient fields and the time the machine needs to ramp the gradients.
In EPI, there is water fat shift in the phase encoding direction due to phase accumulations. To minimize water fat shift (WFS) in the phase direction fat suppression and a wide bandwidth (BW) are selected. On a typical EPI sequence, there is virtually no time at all for the flat top of the gradient waveform. The problem is solved by "ramp sampling" through most of the rise and fall time to improve image resolution.
The benefits of the fast imaging time are not without cost. EPI is relatively demanding on the scanner hardware, in particular on gradient strengths, gradient switching times, and receiver bandwidth. In addition, EPI is extremely sensitive to image artifacts and distortions.