Trevor Andrews1,2, Melanie Kotys1,
Marc Kouwenhoven3, Jay Gonyea2, Takamaru Ashikaga2,
George Gentchos, 2,4
1Philips Healthcare, Cleveland, OH,
United States; 2College of Medicine, University of Vermont,
Burlington, VT, United States; 3Philips Healthcare, Best,
Netherlands; 4Radiology, Fletcher Allen Health Care, Burlington,
VT, United States
Cardiac
MR imaging with steady state free precession sequences suffer from at least
two image quality problems at 3T: excessive banding artifacts and suboptimal
contrast due to inadequate flip angle.
In this study RF shimming was utilized to address these issues. Results from 8 subjects demonstrated
improved blood-to-septum contrast and radiologist-assessed image
quality. For one choice of parameters
banding artifacts were effectively eliminated in all subjects while
maintaining good overall image quality.