In-plane B0 inhomogeneity effects in T2* mapping

Main field B0 inhomogeneity may adversely affect the accuracy of T2* mapping in the abdomen even at locations spatially distant from the B0 variation. We show this effect in both simulation and phantom studies, and show that it can be ameliorated with the use of two-dimensional spatially selective excitation. These findings have important ramifications for applications of BOLD imaging in the abdomen such as renal BOLD or liver T2* mapping, where large B0 inhomogeneity is often present in areas of the image volume spatially remote from the organ of interest.