Sensitivity enhancement and reduction of Gibbs artifact in T2-weighted imaging using variable tip angle excitation

Introduction of a Gaussian weighting function into the phase encoding of the spin-echo imaging method via variable tip angle excitation, with concomitant optimization of the recycle delay, is shown to increase the sensitivity of T2-weighted imaging by up to 40%. In addition, the Gibbs artifact associated with sharp boundaries is reduced considerably without the need for postprocessing of the data.