A New Spectro-Spatial RF Pulse Design for High-Resolution Isotropic Diffusion Imaging

Sangwoo Lee¹, Gaohong Wu¹

Spectro-spatial RF pulses (SPSP RF pulses) for clinical 2D imaging have been widely used for B1-insensitive excitation with excellent lipid suppression compared to the conventional fat saturation methods [1,2]. However, at 3T, pulse design is challenging due to the reduced sub-pulse width, and often results in compromise in the minimum slice thickness and poor slice excitation profile. In this work, we introduce a new spectral-spatial design scheme which allows very thin slice excitation with superior slice profile for single spin echo diffusion imaging.