Rahel Heule1,2, Philipp Madörin1,2, and Oliver Bieri1,2
1Division of Radiological Physics, Department of Radiology, University of Basel Hospital, Basel, Switzerland, 2Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
While
the steady-state free precession (SSFP) dynamics of spin-1/2 nuclei such as 1H
obey the Bloch equations, a similar mathematical framework for describing and understanding the
characteristics of 23Na SSFP signal behavior is not yet available. In
this work, sodium MRI probes were investigated and, in particular, a novel
class of phantoms was presented that proved the ability to generate high sodium
signal at 3 Tesla without impairment due to the skin effect. By means of
balanced SSFP frequency profile measurements, the potential of the novel
phantoms to explore 23Na SSFP
was demonstrated.
