Abstract
SSFP has been successfully applied in clini
cal imaging for several years and it is generally accepted that the SSFP signal is a
function of relaxation times,
excitation angles, and spin densities only. Ho
wever, recently is was shown that in ti
ssues balanced SSFP suffers from a conside
rable signal loss by up to a
factor two due to magnetization transfer.
A modification of the SSFP sequence scheme is
presented that modulates signal attenua
tions in SSFP to either
strongly attenuate or recover th
e near full steady state amplitude. Implications to SNR (CNR) for sequence design for clinical applications are analyzed.
