Out-Of-Slice Saturation with Steady State Preservation for Improved Slice Selectivity in 2D UTE Imaging

Axel J. Krafft¹, Ruitian Song¹, Ralf B. Loeffler¹, Matthew D. Robson², Claudia M. Hillenbrand¹

2D UTE imaging employs half pulse excitation and radial sampling to realize ultra-short echo times and allows for detection of very short T2* species. However, the half pulse slice profile is very sensitive to gradient imperfections and the imaging steady state so that accurate T2* measurements based on 2D UTE imaging remains challenging. Here, a recently presented concept using out-of-slice saturation to suppress unwanted background signals in 2D UTE imaging is extended with a technique for preservation of the imaging steady state. The sequence could be demonstrated as a simple and robust approach for improved 2D UTE slice selectivity.