Xiaoping Wu1, J. Thomas Vaughan1, Kmil Ugurbil1, Pierre-Franois Van de Moortele1
1Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Parallel Transmission (PT) has been suggested as an effective tool for addressing Transmit (Tx) B1 inhomogeneity at high magnetic fields. However shorter selective RF pulses obtained with PT acceleration typically require higher RF amplitudes, resulting in increased levels of Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) which may raise concerns for patient safety. A previous simulation study has shown that an efficient way of reducing SAR in PT is to apply the Variable Rate Selective Excitation (VERSE) principle in RF pulse design, which proves to be more effective in decreasing SAR than just linearly increasing RF pulse duration. In the present study, we verify experimentally the method proposed in by conducting VERSE-PT experiments at 9.4 T.