Balanced Steady-State Free Precession (bSSFP) from an effective field perspective: Application to the detection of chemical exchange (bSSFPX).

ABSTRACT: Chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) is a novel contrast mechanism and it is gaining increasing popularity as many promising applications have been proposed and investigated. Fast and quantitative CEST imaging techniques are further needed in order to increase the applicability of CEST for clinical use as well as to derive quantitative physiological and biological information. Steady-state methods for fast CEST imaging have been reported recently. Here, we observe that an extreme case of these methods is a balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) sequence. The bSSFP in itself is sensitive to the exchange processes; hence, no additional saturation or preparation is needed for CEST-like data acquisition. The bSSFP experiment can be regarded as observation during saturation, with

SUBMITTER: Zhang S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5810596 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature