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Abstract #3768

Improved RF Pulses for 3D SSFP with Minimised Off-Resonance Out-Of-Slab Corruption

Anthony N. Price1, Shaihan J. Malik1, Joseph V. Hajnal1

1Division of Imaging Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, King's College London, London, United Kingdom


Balanced SSFP provides excellent contrast and SNR efficiency, however, its familiar off-resonance characteristics result in black-band artefacts, which are particularly problematic at higher field strengths. Less well-known, but also significant to image quality, are the unwanted signal fluctuations arising from out-off-slice contributions, which are folded back into the imaging plane. Here we design a new RF pulse specifically for 3D SSFP that has very low stopband ripple. When compared to the standard truncated sinc pulse typically used, it yields effective suppression of off-resonance signal ripple whilst achieving a more homogeneous slab profile.