On Shimming Approaches in 3T Breast MRI

Ileana Hancu¹, Robert Lenkinski², Seung-Kyun Lee¹

A population study is presented, analyzing the performance of thirteen shimming approaches for 3T breast MRI exams. Best shim results were obtained by excluding the back and the heart of the subjects. The most homogeneous breast B0 was obtained while shimming over the breast area using 3D B0 maps; this approach, however, may prove impractical, due to the long time needed for the acquisition of B0 maps. Among the multi-plane approaches considered, a rectangular shim ROI (relying on the acquisition of only 2-3 planes of B0 data) provided the best compromise between short acquisition times and homogeneous B0.