Albert Kir1,2, Alan Blair McMillan1
1Magnetic Resonance
Research Center, Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, University of
Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States; 2Electrical
Engineering & Computer Science, University of Maryland Baltimore County,
Baltimore, MD, United States
Previous studies investigating optimized rapid 3D inversion-prepared gradient echo imaging sequences have relied upon the assumption of ideal radio-frequency (RF) spoiling. In this work, a new simulation approach based on the extended phase graph (EPG) formalism, which considers the effect of residual transverse magnetization, is used to predict both signal levels and contrast. We conducted phantom and in vivo brain studies to validate and verify the improvement of the proposed approach over approaches based on ideal RF spoiling, to generate images with optimal SNR, tissue contrast, and acquisition time.