DREAM B1+ Mapping for Short-T2 and -T2* Components

Kay Nehrke¹, Maarten J. Versluis², Andrew Webb², Peter Brnert¹, ²

A new acquisition scheme based on virtual stimulated echoes has been developed for the DREAM B₁⁺ mapping approach, which allows compensation of both, T₂ and T₂*, effects. The new option has been studied on phantoms and in vivo at 7T. For the phantom experiments, rubber phantoms were employed, showing that the sequence allows accurate B₁⁺ mapping for a short T₂ in the order of a millisecond. For the in vivo experiments, B₁⁺ maps of the brain were acquired, showing that the contrast between brain tissue and CSF is reduced for the new sequence option.