Improved half RF slice selectivity in the presence of eddy currents with out-of-slice saturation

Ultrashort echo time imaging with half RF pulse excitation is sensitive to eddy currents induced by the slice-select gradient that distorts the half pulse slice profile. This work demonstrates improvements in the half pulse profile by using spatial saturation on both sides of the imaged slice to suppress the out-of-slice magnetization. This effectively improves the selectivity of the half pulse excitation profile. A quadratic phase RF pulse with high bandwidth and selectivity was used to achieve a wide saturation band with sharp edges. Experimental results demonstrate substantially improved slice selectivity and R(2)* quantitation accuracy obtained with the out-of-slice saturation. This approach is effective in making short T(2) imaging and quantitation with half pulses less sensitive to eddy currents.