Juliane Sabine Budde1, Rolf Pohmann1, Gunamony Shajan1, Kmil Ugurbil2
1Magnetic Resonance Center, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tuebingen, Germany; 2Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Susceptibility weighted imaging benefits from ultra-high field in terms of increased contrast-to-noise ratio and SNR. High resolution phase images with up to 0.175mm x 0.175mm in-plane resolution were acquired at a 9.4T scanner using a 3D velocity compensated gradient echo sequence. The images, covering almost the whole brain area, show excellent susceptibility weighted contrast and SNR. Compared to 3T images with an in-plane resolution of 0.45mm x 0.50mm acquired in about the same scan time, a qualitative improvement can be observed and a greatly increased number of small veins can be visualized at 9.4T.