Fat-Signal Suppression in Single-Slab 3D TSE (SPACE) using Water-Selective Refocusing

John P. Mugler, III¹, Dominik Paul², Wilhelm Horger², Berthold Kiefer²

This work demonstrates the use of a water-selective refocusing RF pulse to achieve fat-signal suppression in slab-selective single-slab 3D-TSE imaging. This approach slightly extends the echo-train duration, but does not affect the echo spacing for the remainder of the echo train and thus does not compromise the efficiency of the single-slab 3D-TSE technique. Compared to conventional, spectrally-selective pre-pulses for fat suppression, the method illustrated here is insensitive to the degree that the fat magnetization is relaxed. The method is also insensitive to shifts of the fat frequency away from the water frequency due to field inhomogeneity.