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Abstract #0613

Improvements in flip-angle uniformization at 7 Tesla using an integrated RF/B0 shim array coil and composite pulses

Bastien Guerin1,2, Eugene Milshteyn1,2, Lawrence L Wald1,2, and Jason Stockmann1,2
1Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States, 2Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States

We compare the RF/B0 shim array composite pulses of Rudrapatna [1] to kT-point and spoke pulses for flip-angle (FA) uniformization using a birdcage coil at 7T. Using 3 kT-points, it is possible to obtained highly uniform flip-angle distributions in the brain within 3ms, as long as the kT-points locations are optimized. The RF/B0 shim array pulses perform less well than this optimized 3-kT-points strategy for non-selective flip-angle mitigation, but better than optimized 3-spoke pulses for flip-angle mitigation in a slice. The DOFs provided by shim array coils could prove invaluable for integrated B0 shimming and flip-angle uniformization at 7T.

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