In clinical 3T imaging,
gradient-echo-based sequences often suffer from signal loss induced by patient-specific susceptibility artifacts. To tackle this problem, a proposed local
signal recovery z-shim method using parallel transmission was implemented for a
clinical setup. The approach was further extended by an automated slice-specific delay-time calculation to ensure user-friendly operation as well
as maximal signal gain in artifact regions. Studies in humans were carried out
using commonly used GRE and EPI sequences. Signals could be nearly fully recovered
in artifact regions; tSNR gain maps for EPI time series showed an increase up
to 148%.
