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Application of the limited-memory quasi-Newton algorithm for multi-dimensional, large flip-angle RF pulses at 7T

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Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics, Biology and Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective

Ultrahigh field MRI provides great opportunities for medical diagnostics and research. However, ultrahigh field MRI also brings challenges, such as larger magnetic susceptibility induced field changes. Parallel-transmit radio-frequency pulses can ameliorate these complications while performing advanced tasks in routine applications. To address one class of such pulses, we propose an optimal-control algorithm as a tool for designing advanced multi-dimensional, large flip-angle, radio-frequency pulses. We contrast initial conditions, constraints, and field correction abilities against increasing pulse trajectory acceleration factors.

Materials and methods

On an 8-channel 7T system, we demonstrate the quasi-Newton algorithm with pulse designs for reduced field-of-view imaging with an oil phantom and in vivo with scans of the human brain stem. We used echo-planar imaging with 2D spatial-selective pulses. Pulses are computed sufficiently rapid for routine applications.

Results

Our dataset was quantitatively analyzed with the conventional mean-square-error metric and the structural-similarity index from image processing. Analysis of both full and reduced field-of-view scans benefit from utilizing both complementary measures.

Conclusion

We obtained excellent outer-volume suppression with our proposed method, thus enabling reduced field-of-view imaging using pulse trajectory acceleration factors up to 4.

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Acknowledgments

MSV and TV acknowledge support from the Danish Council for Strategic Research, the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF59), the Ministry of Higher Education and Science (AU-2010-612-181), the Lundbeck Foundation, Aarhus University Research Foundation, and the Programme Commission on Strategic Growth Technologies, Innovation Fund Denmark (0603-00439B). IIM, SV, and DS thank Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft grant (SU 192/32-1) for support of this work, and Dr. Daniel Edelhoff and Mr. Raphael Mocek for assistance in the experiments.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Chemistry, Center for Ultrahigh-Field NMR Spectroscopy, Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, 8000, Aarhus, Denmark

      Mads S. Vinding & Thomas Vosegaard

    2. German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases DZNE, Bonn, Germany

      Daniel Brenner & Tony Stöcker

    3. Department of Neuropsychology and Psychopharmacology, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

      Desmond H. Y. Tse

    4. Experimental Physics III, TU Dortmund University, 44221, Dortmund, Germany

      Sebastian Vellmer, Dieter Suter & Ivan I. Maximov

    5. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

      Tony Stöcker

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    1. Mads S. Vinding
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    8. Ivan I. Maximov
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    Correspondence to Mads S. Vinding or Ivan I. Maximov.

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    All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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    Mads S. Vinding and Daniel Brenner contributed equally to the work.

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    Vinding, M.S., Brenner, D., Tse, D.H.Y. et al. Application of the limited-memory quasi-Newton algorithm for multi-dimensional, large flip-angle RF pulses at 7T. Magn Reson Mater Phy 30, 29–39 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-016-0580-1

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-016-0580-1

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