Small tip angle three-dimensional tailored radiofrequency slab-select pulse for reduced B1 inhomogeneity at 3 T

This work presents a small tip-angle 3D tailored RF slab-select pulse for reducing the B-1 field inhomogeneity at 3T. The compensated slice profile was determined from a B-1 inhomogeneity map. SNR improvement and degree of artifact reduction were evaluated in a NiCl2 doped phantom and human brains. The technique was found to reduce inhomogeneities as large as 30% of the peak image magnitude in all three spatial directions in the brain using a standard head coil. (C) 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.