Interleaved Slice Excitation for Echo-Shifted Acquisition of Orthogonal Proton Resonance Frequency Temperature Images

Axel Joachim Krafft¹, Jaane Rauschenberg¹, Florian Maier¹, Jrgen Walter Jenne^2,3, Wolfhard Semmler¹, Michael Bock¹

Proton resonance frequency temperature images are acquired with gradient echo techniques. As the temperature induced frequency shift is very small, long echo times have to be used. In such long-TE gradient echo pulse sequences, the available time for application of the encoding gradients between RF excitation and data readout is only partly used. In this work, we present a novel interleaved excitation and readout technique for the acquisition of two orthogonal slices. Compared to conventional gradient echo techniques, this strategy is substantially more time-efficient and allows for temperature monitoring along all three spatial directions around the temperature focus.