Cardiac balanced SSFP using simultaneous multi-slice acquisition is limited by RF pulse duration and SAR. The interplay of these constraints means that the minimum pulse duration does not usually yield the minimum TR. We show that multiband RF pulses designed using VERSE to directly minimize TR can yield a reduced TR. The result is demonstrated in a multiband-2 sequence on a 3T clinical system where the TR is only 15% longer than for single-slice excitation and the time per slice is reduced by 44%.
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