Shaihan J. Malik1, Shiva Keihaninejad2,
Alexander Hammers2,3, Joseph V. Hajnal4
1Robert Steiner MRI Unit, Imaging
Sciences Department, MRC Clinical Sciences Centre, Hammersmith Hospital,
Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom; 2Division of
Neuroscience and Mental Health, Imperial College London, London, United
Kingdom; 3Neurodis Foundation, CERMEP - Imagerie du Vivant, Lyon,
France; 4Robert Steiner MRI Unit, Imaging Sciences Department, MRC
Clinical Sciences Centre, Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College London,
United Kingdom
T1
weighted brain imaging at 3T suffers from contrast variation caused by B1 field
inhomogeneity. This can lead to reduced conspicuity of key anatomical
structures; particularly the deep grey matter nuclei. We present a 3D
tailored RF pulse using parallel transmission which produces uniform
excitation over the whole brain incorporated into a standard MPRAGE
sequence. The resulting images
demonstrate more uniform contrast than those acquired with standard RF pulses
and result in more accurate depiction and automated segmentation of deep grey
matter structures.