Michael Wyss1, David Otto Brunner1, Anne Morel2, Klaas Paul Pruessmann1
1Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University and ETH Zrich, Zurich, Switzerland; 2Laboratory for Functional Neurosurgery, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
MRI in humans at 7Tesla offers not only high baseline sensitivity but also interesting contrast behavior. In the present work we report sequence considerations for robust T1-weighted brain imaging at 7T. An inversion recovery (IR) approach with an adiabatic inversion pulse was chosen. The inversion pulse was optimized between the competing goals of robustness against B1 inhomogeneity, bandwidth and SAR. It was found that the high field yielded not only high SNR and resolution but also surprisingly strong contrast throughout the brain. It permitted the distinction of anatomical structures which have been hard to recognize at lower field strengths.