Mitigation of B1(+) inhomogeneity on single-channel transmit systems with TIAMO

Magn Reson Med. 2013 Jul;70(1):290-4. doi: 10.1002/mrm.24453. Epub 2012 Aug 8.

Abstract

In magnetic resonance imaging, there has been a constant drive to higher static magnetic field strengths (B0) to achieve a higher signal-to-noise ratio and new or enhanced contrasts. In today's high-field systems, severe problems regarding the homogeneity of the transmission field are encountered. Recently, an acquisition scheme called Time-Interleaved Acquisition of Modes has been proposed to tackle the inhomogeneity problems in high-field magnetic resonance imaging. The basic premise is to excite two (or more) different B1(+) modes using static radiofrequency shimming in an interleaved acquisition, where the complementary radiofrequency patterns of the two modes can be exploited to improve overall signal homogeneity. In its usual implementation, a multichannel transmit system is required. In this work, the goal is to present a simple and inexpensive hardware setup which makes it possible to use time-interleaved acquisition of modes on any single-channel transmit system while making use of the vendor-provided single-channel radiofrequency safety system. To demonstrate the efficacy of this setup, spin echo images from the pelvis are acquired at 7 T exhibiting no complete signal dropouts.

MeSH terms

  • Artifacts*
  • Humans
  • Image Enhancement / instrumentation*
  • Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / instrumentation*
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging / instrumentation*
  • Pelvis / anatomy & histology*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Transducers*