Ileana Hancu1, Seung-Kyun Lee1, W. Thomas Dixon1, Laura Sacolick2, Ricardo Becerra3, Zhenghui Zhang3, Graeme McKinnon3, Vijayanand Alagappan4
1GE Global Research Center, Niskayuna, NY, United States; 2GE Global Research Center, Munich, Germany; 3GE Healthcare, Waukesha, WI, United States; 4GE Healthcare, Aurora, OH, United States
Shading is a common issue at 3T, recently shown to be mitigated by elliptical, dual or multiple drive transmit technology. In this study, breast shading was investigated, and attributed to eddy currents induced in a conductive material. An alternative correction approach was developed, based on selective un-blocking and up-tuning of a receive element of a standard 8 channel breast receive array during the transmit phase. This field focusing (or passive parallel transmit) approach resulted in more uniform B1+, better fat suppression and higher SNR, all with lower specific absorption rate.