Abstract #0369

Multiband Spokes Pulses and Design Algorithm for B1+ Inhomogeneity-Compensated Multislice Excitation at 7T

Anuj Sharma¹, Samantha J. Holdsworth², Rafael O'Halloran², Eric Aboussouan², Anh Tu Van², Murat Aksoy², Julian R. Maclaren², Roland Bammer², Victor Andrew Stenger³, William A. Grissom¹

¹Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States; ²Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States; ³Medicine, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, United States

An approach to designing patient-tailored 3D spokes excitation RF pulses that simultaneously excite multiple slices and compensate transmit RF field inhomogeneity at high static field is presented. An interleaved greedy and local optimization algorithm for spokes pulse design was extended to the multiband spokes pulse design problem. In-vivo results demonstrate the effectiveness of the designed multiband spokes pulses in reducing flip angle inhomogeneities caused by field inhomogeneity at 7T.