Balanced steady state free precession fMRI

✍ Scribed by Jin Hyung Lee

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 623 KB
• Volume: 20
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0899-9457
• DOI: 10.1002/ima.20216

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Balanced‐steady‐state free precession (b‐SSFP) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) encompasses several recently developed methods that utilize b‐SSFP acquisition for fMRI. Short repetition time (T~R~) and readout durations of b‐SSFP allow distortion‐free acquisition, 3D imaging, and high‐resolution isotropic voxel acquisition. b‐SSFP fMRI can be categorized into two different classes depending on which contrast mechanism it exploits. Transition‐band b‐SSFP fMRI is a technique that utilizes the sharp transition of the b‐SSFP profile relying on the fact that oxygenated and deoxegenated hemoglobin has different resonance frequencies. On the other hand, passband b‐SSFP fMRI utilizes b‐SSFP in the relatively large flat portion of the b‐SSFP off‐resonance spectrum where oxygenation contrast is expected to be generated from the rapid refocusing in the presence of off‐resonance due to oxy‐ and deoxy‐hemoglobin. While both methods share the advantage of b‐SSFP acquisition such as distortion‐free, 3D high‐resolution functional imaging, the main distinction of the two methods come from the contrast mechanism and spatial coverage. In this article, the two classes of b‐SSFP‐based functional brain imaging methods' characteristics will be compared and discussed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 20, 23–30, 2010