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Although high-field MRI offers increased signal-to-noise (S/N), the non-uniform tipping produced by conventional RF pulses leads to spatially dependent contrast and sub-optimal S/N, thus complicating the interpretation of the MR images. For structural imaging, 3D sequences which do not make use of frequency-selective RF pulses have become popular. Therefore, the aim of this research was to develop non-slice-selective (NSS) RF pulses with immunity to both B1 inhomogeneity and resonance offset. To accomplish this, an optimization routine based on optimal control theory was used to design new NSS pulses with desired ranges of immunity to B1 inhomogeneity and resonance offset. The design allows the phase of transverse magnetization produced by the pulses to vary. While the emphasis is on shallow tip designs, new designs for 30°, 60°, 90° and 180° degree NSS RF pulses are also provided. These larger tip angle pulses are compared with recently published NSS pulses. Evidence is presented that the pulses presented in this article have equivalent performance but are shorter than the recently published pulses. Although the NSS pulses generate higher specific absorption rates (SAR) and larger magnetization transfer (MT) effects than the rectangular pulses they replace, they nevertheless show promise for 3D MRI experiments at high field. |
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