Pl Erik Goa1,
Anders Kristoffersen1, Michael H. Chappell2, Rob H.
Tijssen3, Asta K. Hberg4, Karla L. Miller3
1Dept. of Medical Imaging, St. Olavs
University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway; 2Dept. of Circulation and
Medical Imaging, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU),
Trondheim, Norway; 3FMRIB Centre, Oxford University, Oxford, Oxon,
United Kingdom; 4Dept. of Neuromedicine, Norwegian University of
Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway
The
functional contrast in passband balanced steady-state free precession
(pbSSFP) with 3D segmented EPI readout is compared to that of GRE-EPI and SE-EPI
at 3T. For pbSSFP, TR is varied from 6.5 ms to 45 ms. Standard flickering
checkerboard paradigm is used. We find that the best functional contrast is
obtained at TR = 33 ms with corresponding EPI-factor of 40. At this TR, the
functional contrast in pbSSFP is approximately half that of GRE-EPI and twice
that of SE-EPI with otherwise comparable scan parameters. False detections
due to banding artefacts are present in pbSSFP.