[Influence of the difference in start-up echo on signal intensity in the FIESTA sequence]

The FIESTA sequence is a fast imaging method used for various parts in recent years. A constant flip angle (CFA) or linear flip angle (LFA) are used as the start-up echo in many cases. It is reported from CFA, which is the conventional method, that the T1 value and T2 value influence the speed that reaches steady state. However, there is no such report in LFA. Therefore, we examined the influence of the difference of start-up echo method upon signal intensity. In phantoms other than vegetable oil, the difference was not accepted in the change of speed that reaches steady state and the signal intensity in steady-state transit. In LFA, signal intensity of vegetable oil was clearly lower than CFA. The same result was obtained regardless of on or off resonance. From the result, it was thought that it depended on T2/T1 for the speed that reaches steady state. Moreover, the difference in resonant frequency was considered to greatly influence LFA but not CFA. That is, it was suggested by the difference in start-up echo that the signal intensity of fat changes greatly.