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Abstract #5262

A Robust non-balanced SSFP fMRI Technique for High Field: Comparison with SE-EPI and bSSFP Techniques at 7 Tesla

Vahid Malekian1,2, Abbas Nasiraei Moghaddam1,3, Mahdi Khajehim1, and David Norris2

1Biomedical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran, Iran, 2Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud university Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands, 3School of Cognitive Sciences, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Tehran, Iran

T2-weighted fMRI methods including Spin-Echo (SE) and balanced SSFP (bSSFP), became of particular interest to reach superior functional specificity in high field application. However, both techniques suffer from a number of practical limitations. SE fMRI may be SAR limited at high fields. On the other hand, bSSFP suffers from dark bands. To eliminate dark bands in bSSFP, non-balanced-SSFP (nbSSFP) fMRI was previously suggested. Here, we developed a robust version of nbSSFP by using a single SSFP-echo sequence to decrease motion effects. The performance of the suggested sequence is evaluated and the results obtained are compared with bSSFP and SE-EPI fMRI.

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