Abstract
Musculoskeletal (MSK) imaging benefits from increased resolution at higher fields, as this may improve diagnostic accuracy and confidence. Especially 3D double echo steady state (DESS) sequences, offering a high contrast between cartilage and joint fluid, have gained increased interest for high resolution MSK imaging. Here, we resolve the reason for a prominent loss of contrast between fluid and tissues, as observed with high resolution DESS imaging, but being inherent in all non-balanced SSFP sequences. We will show that for anisotropic scans the contrast between fluids and tissues can be almost completely restored using an alternative dephasing concept for non-balanced SSFP.
