Enhanced Image Resolution and Reduced Measurement Time Using Inner Volume Imaging and Parallel Excitation

Johannes Thomas Schneider^1,2, Martin Haas², Jürgen Hennig², Sven Junge¹, Wolfgang Ruhm¹, Peter Ullmann¹

With parallel transmission / TransmitSENSE arbitrarily shaped regions can be selectively excited with reasonable pulse durations which allows inner volume imaging by reduction of the field of view (FOV) to excited regions of interest. The achievable FOV reduction factor is limited by decreasing SNR and by potentially backfolded residual signals resulting in aliasing artifacts, which both is assessed in the present study. FOV reduction by a factor of 4 in each direction was applied successfully to imaging of a phantom, a kiwi and a rat in-vivo. Reduction of measurement time and enhanced image resolution by the same factor were achieved.