title: Excitation of arbitrary shapes by gradient optimized random walk in discrete k-space.
abstract: A new technique for the excitation of arbitrary shapes is proposed. It is based on a parallel sequence of small tip angle RF pulses and gradient pulses. The small tip angle rotations co-add yielding a 90 degrees excitation pulse within the selected excitation profile while outside the profile, the rotations cancel each other. A full theory of the completely arbitrary regional volume excitation (CARVE) method is presented and experimentally verified. In CARVE, k-space is discrete because the RF is applied in pulses. The discrete character of k-space permits an arbitrary trajectory for the k-space walk. The optimal random trajectory is found by minimizing the gradient load using simulated annealing. It is shown, both theoretically and experimentally, that such a trajectory is much better than any other systematic or random trajectory in k-space.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Mayo Graduate School, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Sersa
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Macura
mesh_terms: D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods*