Aysel Sabuncu Brain Research Center (BAM)

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Browsing Aysel Sabuncu Brain Research Center (BAM) by Subject "2D RF pulse"

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    Hadamard slice encoding for reduced-FOV diffusion-weighted imaging
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2014) Sarıtaş, Emine Ülkü; Lee, D.; Çukur, Tolga; Shankaranarayanan, A.; Nishimura, D. G.
    Methods: A 2D echo-planar RF pulse and matching multiband refocusing RF pulses were designed using the Shinnar-Le Roux algorithm to reduce band interference, and variable-rate selective excitation to shorten the pulse durations. Hadamardencoded images were resolved through a phase-preserving image reconstruction. The performance of the method was evaluated via simulations, phantom experiments, and in vivo high-resolution axial DWI of spinal cord.Purpose: To improve the clinical utility of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) by extending the slice coverage of a highresolution reduced field-of-view technique. Theory: Challenges in achieving high spatial resolution restrict the use of DWI in assessment of small structures such as the spinal cord. A reduced field-of-view method with 2D echo-planar radiofrequency (RF) excitation was recently proposed for high-resolution DWI. Here, a Hadamard sliceencoding scheme is proposed to double the slice coverage by exploiting the periodicity of the 2D echo-planar RF excitation profile.Results: The proposed scheme successfully extends the slice coverage, while preserving the sharp excitation profile and the reliable fat suppression of the original method. For in vivo axial DWI of the spinal cord, an in-plane resolution of 0.7 × 0.7 mm2 was achieved with 16 slices.Conclusion: The proposed Hadamard slice-encoding scheme doubles the slice coverage of the 2D echo-planar RF reduced field-of-view method without any scan-time penalty.
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    Sheared two-dimensional radiofrequency excitation for off-resonance robustness and fat suppression in reduced field-of-view imaging
    (Wiley, 2022-09-30) Barlas, Bahadır Alp; Bahadır, Çağla Deniz; Kafalı, Sevgi Gökçe; Yılmaz, Uğur; Sarıtaş, Emine Ülkü
    Purpose: Two-dimensional (2D) echo-planar radiofrequency (RF) pulses are widely used for reduced field-of-view (FOV) imaging in applications such as diffusion-weighted imaging. However, long pulse durations render the 2D RF pulses sensitive to off-resonance effects, causing local signal losses in reduced-FOV images. This work aims to achieve off-resonance robustness for 2D RF pulses via a sheared trajectory design. Theory and Methods: A sheared 2D RF pulse design is proposed to reduce pulse durations while covering identical excitation k-space extent as a standard 2D RF pulse. For a given shear angle, the number of sheared trajectory lines is minimized to obtain the shortest pulse duration, such that the excitation replicas are repositioned outside the slice stack to guarantee unlimited slice coverage. A target fat/water signal ratio of 5% is chosen to achieve robust fat suppression. Results: Simulations, imaging experiments on a custom head and neck phantom, and in vivo imaging experiments in the spinal cord at 3 T demonstrate that the sheared 2D RF design provides significant improvement in image quality while preserving profile sharpnesses. In regions with high off-resonance effects, the sheared 2D RF pulse improves the signal by more than 50% when compared to the standard 2D RF pulse. Conclusion: The proposed sheared 2D RF design successfully reduces pulse durations, exhibiting significantly improved through-plane off-resonance robustness, while providing unlimited slice coverage and high fidelity fat suppression. This method will be especially beneficial in regions suffering from a variety of off-resonance effects, such as spinal cord and breast. © 2022 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.