Short VAPOR-Like Water Suppression with Improved Water Suppression Performance Suitable for High Field MRS and MRSI Exploiting the Residual Water Signal as a Reference

Zenon Starcuk jr. ¹, Zenon Starcuk¹, Jana Starcukova¹

A short VAPOR-like water suppression sequence is presented, exhibiting similarly low B1 and T1 sensitivity and improved excitation profiles. The improvements are based on optimization of flip angles and pulse durations of chemical-shift selective pulses interleaved with fixed short delays. The sequence consists of 6-pulse water presaturation with asymmetric RF pulses, followed by B1-insensitive inversion and the localization module. The improved robustness may be utilized for an accurate control of residual water signal and exploiting it as a reference. Thanks to the reduced length and reduced impact on metabolites, the sequence should improve quantifiability and be suitable for spectroscopic imaging.