Catherine D. G. Hines1, Takeshi Yokoo2,
Mark Bydder2, Claude B. Sirlin2, Scott B. Reeder1,3
1Biomedical Engineering, University of
Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States; 2Radiology,
University of California-San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States; 3Radiology,
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
Chemical
shift based water-fat separation methods used to quantify fat in tissue are
usually based on rapid 2D or 3D spoiled gradient echo methods. In order to
avoid bias from differences in T1 between water and fat, a low flip angle is
typically used to minimize this source bias. Reducing the flip angle reduces
SNR performance, however. In this work, we present an algorithm to maximize
the flip angle (to maximize SNR) while maintaining a user-defined allowable
error in fat-fraction from T1 related bias. Experimental validation is also
shown.