SERA: A Technique to Improve the Performance of the 3D Sequence by Reducing Aliasing Artifacts in Edge Slices

Yanle Hu¹

When the object being imaged is larger than the field of view in slice-selection direction (zFOV), wrap-around aliasing artifacts will be observed in 3D sequences even with the use of a high performance excitation pulse. Although throwing away a couple of edge slices can solve the problem, it reduces the efficiency of the 3D method. In this work, a new technique is introduced. It excites and saturates spins in two thin slices immediately outside of zFOV before the slab excitation. As a result, aliasing artifacts in edge slices can be suppressed and the efficiency of 3D acquisition can be preserved.