Dan Ma1, Shivani Pahwa1, Vikas Gulani1, and Mark Griswold1
The
goal of this study is to characterize and improve the accuracy and
repeatability of 2D MRF scans in the presence of slice profile imperfections. Slice
profile imperfection causes deviation between the actual flip angles and
nominal flip angles, which affects the accuracy of measured T1 and T2 values.
This error can be corrected by simulating the RF excitation pulse in the
dictionary. No extra scan time or post-processing time is needed once the new
dictionary is simulated. The accuracy of both T1 and T2 is improved after slice
profile correction. MRF also demonstrates good repeatability, with the
coefficient of variance (CV) of 1.17% for T1 and 3.08% for T2.
