Karan Dara1, Mark A. Griswold1,
Jamal J. Derakhshan1, Jeffrey L. Sunshine2, Jeffrey L. Duerk1
1Department of Biomedical
Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, United States; 2Department
of Radiology, University Hospitals of Cleveland, Cleveland, OH, United States
Balanced SSFP (bSSFP) sequences with additional preparatory schemes like diffusion weighting, T2 weighting and selective flow suppression are extremely sensitive to changing eddy currents patterns. In this work, we demonstrate a mechanism to minimize eddy currents in bSSFP sequences with preparatory schemes without any change in the bSSFP image contrast. This is achieved by generating a continuous yet dynamically switching gradient pattern along the entire PE axis. This preferentially diminishes deviations in PE gradient amplitude near the centre of k-space and reduces the eddy current artifact intensity.