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Abstract #0659

ZTE Imaging With Enhanced Flip Angle Using Modulated Excitation

Konrad Schieban 1 , Markus Weiger 1 , Franciszek Hennel 2 , Andreas Boss 3 , and Klaas Paul Pruessmann 1

1 Institute for Biomedical Engineering, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, 2 Bruker BioSpin MRI GmbH, Ettlingen, Germany, 3 Institute for Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Zero Echo Time (ZTE) MRI is a 3D radial projection technique dedicated to imaging tissues with rapid transverse relaxation. In ZTE imaging, RF excitation is typically performed with short, block-shaped pulses of limited flip angle, thus restricting T1-weighting and possibly SNR. To overcome these limitations, it is proposed here to replace the block pulse with frequency- and amplitude modulated RF pulses. These are optimized with respect to flip angle amplitude and uniformity over the bandwidth spanned by the frequency encoding gradients. The enhanced flip angle performance achieved in this way is demonstrated experimentally in phantoms and a tissue sample.

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