Magnetization Transfer Imaging using non-balanced SSFP at Ultra-Low Field

We have demonstrated a method for introducing Magnetization Transfer (MT) weighting in a non-balanced SSFP sequence (PSIF) at 64mT by changing the total power of the on-resonance RF excitation pulse. The presence of the MT effect was validated through simulations, experiments in phantoms of water, cream, and hair conditioner, as well as in-vivo. Changes to the signal amplitude in the conditioner from the flip angle and pulse width of the RF pulse illustrated the presence of MT saturation. An example protocol with MT weighting was applied in-vivo to generate magnetisation transfer ratio maps.