Universal Pulses Enable a One-Hour Clinical Neuroimaging Protocol at Submillimeter Resolution on the NextGen 7T

Motivation: Clinical imaging protocols of structural abnormalities stand to benefit from implementation of Universal Pulses (UP) in high-resolution whole-brain MRI at 7T. Goal(s): To avoid the need for real-time patient-specific calibration and RF pulse tailored computations, UPs can provide data-trained pulse profiles tailored to sequence and coil while preserving efficacy across subjects. Approach: Field maps were collected on 6 subjects and used as training data to design RF pulses for 3D anatomical sequences in a clinical scanning protocol for epilepsy patients. Results: This work successfully demonstrates UP implementation for a clinical imaging protocol of adults and children on the Berkeley NextGen 7T scanner. Impact: Universal Pulses provide a seamless solution to mitigate the RF field inhomogeneity problem for neuro MRI at 7T, enabling clinical populations to benefit from fast, high-resolution anatomical imaging without the need for dielectric pads.