Improving Slab Excitation by Parallel Transmission

Ulrich Katscher¹, Hanno Homann¹, Peter Brnert¹

Transmit SENSE is usually applied to improve 2D or 3D RF pulses. This study applies Transmit SENSE to 1D pulses, possible in case of large B1 variations across the slice or slab to be excited. Typically, such large B1 variations are found across the slabs excited for 3D imaging or for REST. 1D Transmit SENSE can improve excitation profile and particularly RF power / SAR behavior. The resulting pulses have the same duration as standard pulses, and can easily be incorporated in standard sequences maintaining sequence timing. The approach was tested using synthetic and realistic coil sensitivity profiles.